Squeezing Military Secrets Out of Saddam
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S refusal to allow U.N. inspection of sensitive
sites suspected of harboring secrets about his chemical- and
biological-warfare capability has sharply raised the stakes in the
confrontation with the U.S. "Sooner or later, something is going to give,"
President Clinton said publicly last week during one of the few
escapes he got from Zippergate. Privately, White House aides are suggesting
that U.S. military force may soon be unavoidable. "We're not going to stand
by if we feel that our interests are profoundly threatened," says one.
Administration officials believe Saddam's political and military authority
would be disrupted by sustained bombing--even though they acknowledge air
power alone is unlikely to eliminate his capability to resume production of
chemical and biological weapons. But if the U.N. monitors are unable to
perform their mission, little is lost by resort to force, they argue. In the end,
even the gulf states, though ambivalent about U.S. military action, are more
concerned about their security than about the reaction on the Arab street.
Their attitude has helped convince Washington policymakers that failure to
respond to Saddam's seemingly endless provocations would have profound
security implications for the oil-rich region.