Word: saddamism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Saddam Hussein is like a punching bag. No matter how many times you hit him, he just keeps coming back in your face. This time the Iraqi dictator decreed that Americans would no longer be allowed on the 40-member U.N. inspection team that is hunting for remnants of his weapons programs. He stopped three U.S. inspectors from disembarking in Baghdad last Thursday, sending their plane back to Bahrain, and threatened to kick the other 10 Americans on the team out of his country this week. On Saturday, Saddam produced a mob of angry demonstrators who burned American flags...
...Baghdad and the inspection team there to continue its work. At the White House, national security aides convened an emergency meeting to consider a U.S. response. "This is a very serious move by the Iraqis," said an official. "It threatens the linchpin of what we've built to contain Saddam...
Clinton immediately decided to press the U.N. to add new sanctions to the trade embargo that has crippled Iraq's economy since the country invaded Kuwait in 1990. If Saddam continued to resist, the White House signaled, it was more than ready to use military force. The Pentagon has 18,500 soldiers, 17 ships and 200 warplanes in the region poised to launch a retaliatory strike if the American inspectors in Baghdad are endangered...
Ironically, Saddam's gambit helped unify the Security Council just as he was making headway in dividing it. Last month the U.S. tried to get the council to ban international travel by Iraqi military and intelligence officials after U.N. inspections chief Richard Butler reported that Iraq was continuing to withhold information on its chemical weapons and missile programs. But France, Russia and China balked at an immediate ban, and the U.S. had to settle for a watered-down threat to block such travel sometime in the future...
...slightly more topical: Hot Shots, Part Deux. Like a "fast track" rally, it's full of ex-presidents, and snuck in among the groaners is a classic swordfight between a near-bionic Lloyd Bridges (as the current CIC) and the returning villain de la semana . . . mustachioed mad chemist Saddam Hussein. The best laughs in life are cheap...