Deadline Could Speed Up the Timetable : Another U.N. resolution could focus Hussein on the worst-case scenario

By the end of this week the U.N. Security Council will have debated, and most probably approved, a resolution that in so many words sanctions the possible use of force if Iraq doesn’t end its occupation of Kuwait within a fixed time. Washington is confident that its missionary work among the 15 council members in behalf of the resolution has been successful; it would not put U.S. diplomatic prestige at risk by plunging ahead in an enterprise whose outcome was uncertain. Washington wants to see a firm date set for Iraq to leave Kuwait. Jan. 1 has been mentioned, though U.S. officials say a specific deadline is negotiable.

This will be the 11th U.N. resolution demanding Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait. Its intent makes it clearly the most momentous. But is it needed? Probably. A few thoughts:

1. An unmet deadline wouldn’t imply that war becomes an inevitability the next day.

In fact, such a deadline would make war highly unlikely before the mentioned date, even though the U.S. position is that it retains full freedom of action no matter what the U.N. resolves. To be sure, a hostile act by Iraq could set off a confrontation at any time.

2. A U.N. resolution allowing force to be used against Iraq is politically desirable.

It is, and for the same reason that inheres in the paradoxical experience that one of the most effective ways to keep the peace is by arming securely for possible battle. Concrete international support for using the military option as a last resort is needed precisely to add credibility to the political measures already taken, most especially the Security Council resolutions condemning Iraq’s aggression and demanding that it disgorge its conquest.

3. The deadline is worth trying.

The continuing buildup of a multinational force in the Arabian desert has so far done nothing to intimidate Iraq. Neither has the message that has been so insistently pressed on Baghdad by Soviet, Egyptian and other leaders that the United States and its allies aren’t bluffing. From all appearances, Hussein continues to believe that time is on his side, that his antagonists will soon weary of the standoff and that the coalition arrayed against him will collapse, leaving him in possession of his conquest and the dominantly coercive political and military power in the Arab world.

It is vital for the larger cause of peace that this calculation be disproved, that Iraq’s aggression not only be condemned but, if sanctions and political pressures fail to work in a timely way, that the stage be set to roll back that aggression by other means. The council resolution that is likely to be passed this week aims above all else at fixing Saddam Hussein’s mind on that dire possibility.