A Show of Strength

Clinton's charge sends Saddam into retreat, but taming him is another matter

Restless, reckless and tired of being rebuffed, Saddam Hussein once again looked poised to carry out an epic feat of self-destruction. By sending 20,000 fresh troops to breathe heavily across Kuwait's border and then withdrawing them after America clenched its fist, he managed to remind the world that he was a loose cannon, derail the momentum toward lifting the U.N. sanctions that are bleeding his people dry and burnish the prestige of an American President sorely in need of a foreign-policy success. "It was a godsend," said a U.N. diplomat at the Security Council. Exulted a State Department official: "Saddam blinked,...

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