PERSPECTIVE ON THE GULF WAR : It’s Something We Had to Do : Saddam Hussein now has to face the consequences of his unjustified aggression. He left us no choice.

War is always evil, but there are occasions when it is the lesser of two evils. We are now faced with one of those occasions. The international alliance ranged against Saddam Hussein understands that clearly. For what is now at stake is our collective security and our hopes, with the end of the Cold War, of building a safer, more peaceful world.

By invading--and dismantling--a peaceful sovereign state, the Iraqi leader dealt those hopes a shattering blow. But he also united the world against him. The response of the international community to the Iraqi aggression has been remarkable and unprecedented: nobody wants to live in Hussein’s anarchic world.

That is why the Security Council of the United Nations passed 12 resolutions against Iraq, and insisted on its full and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. It also authorized the use of force to eject Iraq from Kuwait if Hussein did not withdraw his army by Jan. 15. The deadline passed with no sign that Hussein would comply. Meanwhile, the people of Kuwait endured more brutality from their Iraqi occupiers. Their country was stripped of everything that was valuable and movable. Hospitals were laid bare and factories dismantled. Ordinary Kuwaitis were systematically tortured, raped and executed--often in front of their own families. The nature and scale of atrocities has been amply documented, yet still it defies description. Until last summer, there were 700,000 Kuwaitis in Kuwait; now there are 250,000.

The international community cannot afford to let aggression win: It would be giving the Iraqi war machine the green light to unleash even greater devastation on the region in the near future. Saddam Hussein pretends that the issue is Palestine, not Kuwait. He has fooled some Arabs and some Palestinians with his argument. But it is entirely spurious.

In fact, he set the Palestinian cause back months, if not years. It is impossible to justify his invasion of Kuwait by equating it with the Israeli occupation of Arab territory. But that occupation also must be ended and we shall return to this issue with renewed vigor once the Iraqi occupation is over.

So we have not shied away from the military option. Hussein left us with no alternative. It is understandable, though, that people should ask themselves whether this war is justified. I believe that the answer is yes.

It is now 5 1/2 months since Iraq’s brutal invasion. The international coalition showed great patience and restraint. We made it absolutely clear that Iraq would not be attacked if it withdrew. We truly went the extra mile for peace to persuade Saddam Hussein to withdraw peacefully. We tried all the peaceful pressures at our disposal: economic, diplomatic and the threat of force.

Our main hope of avoiding war was the pressure of economic sanctions, backed up by the threat of force. On Aug. 6, the United Nations approved the most wide-ranging sanctions in its history. The trade embargo has been observed and enforced effectively--at considerable cost to many countries that can ill afford to apply sanctions. But while these measures caused some damage to Iraq’s economy, there was no sign whatsoever that they were forcing Hussein to relax his grip on Kuwait. On the contrary, this was becoming tighter every day.

The fact is that the Iraqi leader is indifferent to the sufferings of his own people: He was quite prepared for them to endure long lines and rationing so long as he could keep his war machine running. Work continued all the time to strengthen its fighting capacity. Iraqi agents combed the world to find willing sanctions-busters.

By far the most important reason for exercising the military option is to uphold international law and the authority of the United Nations. By doing so, we are strengthening our collective security and making the world a safer place for future generations. If we are to protect and enhance long-term security, we must be prepared to face down any challenges--if necessary, by military means.

We could not afford to wait when Iraq was committing new atrocities with every day that passed. Further delay would only have given the Iraqis more time to strengthen their defenses. If we were to have offered Hussein another deadline, he would have concluded that there was no need to take the United Nations seriously. Other countries might eventually have come to the same conclusion.

Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein would have done everything possible to undermine the cohesion of the international alliance. If sanctions backed up by the threat of force failed, what grounds could there have been for supposing that relying on sanctions without a credible threat of force would do the trick?

We did not want this war and have done nothing to encourage war. We did everything in our power to avoid having to wage a war. The ruler of Iraq was given ample time to leave Kuwait. He refused to do so. Our cause is a just one. We built up our multinational forces to the extent that we can be confident of victory.

Now Hussein will have to face the consequences of his unjustifiable aggression. If he had been allowed to get away with it, the world would have become a more dangerous place. We cannot and will not let that happen.