THE GULF WAR: The Political Front : Words on the War

“Many Americans seem to assume that if the war turns out disastrously for Iraq, an Iraqi general or colonel will remove Saddam Hussein from power. That would certainly resolve America’s dilemma concerning whether to go after Hussein. Yet there is little precedent for such behavior in the Arab world. Libya’s Moammar Kadafi, Syria’s Assad and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat have all pursued fiendish, disastrous policies. None has been ousted. . . . Egypt’s Anwar Sadat was the great peacemaker with Israel. He was assassinated. In the Arab world, America’s hatred is often a lifesaver.”

--STEVEN L. SPIEGEL, a Middle East policy specialist, is a professor of political science at UCLA