Word: saddamism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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While biological and chemical arms can potentially wreak havoc on civilian populations, they're considered inefficient, especially when delivered by Saddam Hussein's favorite transport, the Scud. "The Scud is an inaccurate weapon and the wind has to be just right," says Thompson. Still, Israel is taking notice. Statements by the chief U.N. weapons inspector that Iraq has enough biological or chemical arms to "blow away Tel Aviv" has elicited Pentagon-like tough talk from Israeli officials. "Surely Iraq must know that it will not pay to attack Israel," government spokesman David Bar-Ilan told Reuters. Israelis are being told...
...will Saddam make concessions? Not likely. The Iraqi leader may be miscalculating the extent to which President Clinton's domestic problems are affecting his military resolve. According to Newt Gingrich, an unusual Clinton bedfellow at the moment, Saddam "might be confused by the difference between headlines and the national will...
...America's peace-minded allies? Well, Saddam is making it easier for them to come on board, too. Iraq is "obviously trying to challenge the Security Council and demonstrate that it has no power," says TIME U.N. correspondent Bill Dowell. "That's something the French and Russians can't accept." As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright heads to Europe Wednesday to drum up support for a strike against Iraq, her job should be easier than usual...
...taking these threats seriously and are mobilizing millions of Iraqis in preparation," said Monday's front-page editorial in the Baath paper Al-Thawra. Saddam won't have seen "Wag the Dog" yet, but he already knows what a welcome distraction bombing raids on his country provide for the White House...
...That said, the "sensitive site"stand-off, more or less continuous since October, is set to reach a point where a military strike is the easiest solution: Ramadan ends this week, and the French ? doves on Iraqi affairs ? step down from the presidency of the Security Council. "If Saddam has any sense," says Dowell, "he will make a concession." For Clinton, the hardest part of an attack would be convincing his allies that it has nothing to do with his personal life...