WASHINGTON INSIGHT

TAKE THAT, GEORGE: Saddam Hussein has been bitterly criticized by the United States, but he can play that hand too. According to a recently obtained memo, Baghdad in May requested an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to consider the “grave situation in Los Angeles . . . and the hazardous and deteriorating conditions of the civilian inhabitants.” Iraq’s charge d’affaires at the United Nations said the U.S. Administration was “pursuing policies of repression, using armed force against defenseless citizens and failing to address itself to . . . depressed social and economic conditions” at home. But the attempt at one-upmanship didn’t work. The U.N. meeting never took place.