The question concerned accountability, and James Baker would have none of it. In a television interview last week, the Secretary of State was pointedly asked by New York Times reporter R.W. Apple Jr. why the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, on Baker's direct orders, told Saddam Hussein in late July that the U.S. took no position on Iraq's border and economic dispute with Kuwait. A week later, Iraq invaded the emirate.
Baker said he agreed with a Washington Post columnist who had called such questions "retrospective scapegoating" and "shameful." He added, "We've got some 20/20 hindsight going on that's been highly critical,...
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