U.N. should knock
wind from Saddam's sails
STEVE CULLEN is a
junior advertising
major and Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
The winds of power blow
constantly.
Who watches whom, and who
calls the shots for whom are
issues everyone - from 3-year
olds to the rulers of nations -
must deal with from birth to
death. These issues are the torrent
thermals of the world. They
shake foundations and circle the
earth.
The Good Ship World has a
small deck and humanity bulges
from every comer. Our crew, so
interdependent and yet so inept at
cooperation, depends on the sails
cast to the wind for protection
and guidance.
'T’L. ___Ai_ r
i lit ^utaiiuu mtu, lui ub, id
who casts the sails. But, alas,
there lies the vicious cycle for
our crew: They who tend the
ropes are made of the same falli
ble material as the rest of us.
Saddam Hussein is once
again setting his blood spattered
sails to disrupt the winds of the
world in the gust-lashed Middle
East.
Economic constraints placed
on Iraq following the cozy little
TV war in the Persian Gulf have
stretched the skin of the Iraqi
peasants taut across their bodies.
Sanctions have consumable
goods at an all time level of inac
cessibility for the people under
Saddam Hussein. The purveyor
of international law and civility -
the United Nations - has seen
this as a need to move toward the
return of Iraq to the international
economic community. This step
would avail its gaunt and dis
eased citizens a return to tolera
ble conditions.
To Saddam, though, it is a
stepping stone toward fulfillment
of his ultimate dreams as a major
sailor in the oceans of power.
Saddam feels his people live
exclusively on a diet of complex
political carbohydrates and
branched chain nationalism. War
is the buffet where Saddam sits,
and the biggest steak on the menu
is the United States. And much ,,
like a 48 ounce porterhouse,
Saddam feels just trying to put it
on your plate gains enough atten
tion to satisfy any appetite.
Saddam, ever the king of
international platform position
ing and media manipulation, has
set the stage of his not-so-fleeting
drama career. After casting the
biggest stars in the sea in what
seemed to be a love story of dis
armament and war tribunal com
pliance, Saddam has turned his
fanciful eye toward suspense with
a focus on tragedy.
Saddam’s media muscleman,
Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister
of Iraq, started the fray with
accusations that “U.S. spies are
dominating the inspection pro
ceedings ... we will not be intim
idated, and will stand fast until
the international community
hears our legitimate issues.”
The real underlying issue here
is that it was too much of a kick
in the teeth for Iraq to lift its skirt
and show the goods to the United
States after the spanking of 1991.
The Iraqis are too proud a
people to stomach judgment from
former enemies. Don’t think
1991 doesn’t eat them inside. The
Germans waited 20 years to seek
revenge. For a nation like Iraq,
able to war with opposing forces
for hundreds of years, six years is
nothing.
Saddam has risen to power
through the empowerment of the
nationalistic vein in him. His
self-perpetuating world rein
forces him as the underdog savior
of a starving people. His people,
lost in the desert and connected
through history, have no choice
but to follow Saddam. They are
stuck on his tiny ship and subject
to his sail. They are puppets in his
play on the history of Iraqi glory.
Saddam’s fearless desire to
butt heads with the biggest and
baddest - like Castro’s - is capti
vating to those who follow.
Basking in the glow of being a
focal point once again, his own
vanity intoxicates him. Like a
moth to the light of glory, he can
not turn away - compromising
nothing to seize center stage.
Just to prove he can still rock
the boat all the way to the White
House, he jumped on the chance
to invite (and reject) the United
States into the inspection, never
having any intention of actually
disarming. Much like getting an
old flame to ask you out just to
turn them down.
Having the United Nations as
best man to the event was perfect,
because now the whole crew is
boxed in. Never before has the
will of the international decree
been ignored.
The United Nations must
have its laws upheld.
In the end they have got be in
charge of the sails. To be over
thrown is mutiny and a precedent
that can’t come to pass. Someone
needs to keep the will of the
winds strong, but all but one
member of the crew has jumped
ship for the job. Leaving good ol’
William Jefferson Clinton to
swab the decks.
A job for which first mate
Billy was first in line. Clinton is
obsessed with his historical lega
cy as a president. He brings
together staffs to talk about it. He
is a student of past rulers and
obviously U.S. presidents - learn
ing form their failures and victo
ries.
He is the backroom dealer, in
the trenches like Nixon. He is a
champion like Kennedy, friend to
all - without crossing the wrong
people. Like Reagan, a master of
the modem media and delega
tion.
But he is missing the one
thing that Americans love most.
Bill hasn’t gone out and kicked
ass.
Clinton needs a war. He is a
huge believer that foreign policy
is the key to historical fame, and
Saddam is his Stalin, Castro and
Arafat, all in one.
Both sides are pointlessly
businesslike at this point. In
truth, the two are chained pit
bulls scraping to get at each
other’s throat, but fearful of what'
the neighbors are going to think.
Clinton - the symbol of
America’s meddling, arrogant,
yet useful foreign policy — is
searching the horizon for way to
earn his keep in history. And
Saddam is proud, maniacal and
too blinded with greed and jeal
ousy of the real players to see the
piles of his dead people.
The winds are blowing, and
both ships are full speed ahead.
Remember, they are playing
on the same ground, and we all
go down on the same ship.
^-\ ■ I ' •
--
Gamble
“Gulf
rMi ■■ . ———g— ■ > ■
x r
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Guest
VIEW
Shrewd Saddam must be stopped
TIM FENN is a columnist
for the The Daily Campus
at the University of
Connecticut.
(U-WIRE) STORRS, Conn. -
You can always tell when it’s near
Thanksgiving. Not by the falling
leaves or the first snow of the fall,
but by Saddam Hussein attacking
some other country or annoying the ,
United States.
xx was xasx year xnax ne axxacKea
the Kurds (whom the United States,
was “protecting”) and ticked off a
few politicians. This year Saddam is
at it again; but this time it’s a matter
of business.
In Saddam’s world, however,
business is war.
It all started a few weeks ago,
when Iraq banned passage of several
U.N. inspectors from an arms inspec
tion team. This team was part of a
Gulf War resolution that forced
Saddam to allow the inspectors, a
group that prevents the production of
WMDs (Weapons of Mass
Destruction).
What worries many leaders (but
hasn’t quite hit the public yet) is that
this president (I prefer “wacko”) may
very well have the weapons already.
Although they may not be
nuclear (these don’t take a few days
to build), chances are he has a couple
liters of anthrax or botulinum toxin.
Or, for those who have seen the
movie “The Rock,” Saddam may
possess some binary-VX, a nerve
toxin. The wonders of science never
cease.
How did we find out about the
production of this stuff? It was
Saddam’s own son-in-law, Gen.
Hussein Kamel Majid, who defected
to Jordan and forced his stepfather to
admit to producing some of the com
ponents required to produce chemi
cals like VX. Then Majid returned to
Iraq after Saddam's confessions, and
guess how Saddam greeted his son
in-law? He ordered him executed, of
course.
Note to world leaders: Saddam is
not a caring guy.
So is Saddam preparing for war?
Is his plan to produce these weapons
and unleash all hellfire on the world?
Well, Saddam just has an unusual
way of doing business. For nearly
seven years, economic sanctions on
Iraq have prevented it from develop
ing as a wealthy country. Others are
affected as well (it’s the age of multi
nationalism, you know), like France,
who wants to cash in on Iraq’s oil.
So, Iraq expels some U.N.
inspectors, ticks off the United
States; the United States demands
U.N. action, and the United Nations
is split between us and them - those
who want to take military action, and
those who want the economic sanc
tions lifted so Saddam will let the
inspectors back in. As much as I dis
like the guy, he sure is sneaky.
From here on in, let the haggling
begin.
Saddam is doing his best to
stretch the United Nations as far
apart as possible so the United States
is no longer an issue, and. then get
the economic sanctions lifted so the
money pours in. The United States
will have to do some serious con
vincing if it hopes to get backing
from the rest of the United Nations,
which only gave Saddam a spank on
the wrists with the threat of new
sanctions.
ihe scary part is how Saddam is
performing his little act. In order to
get what he wants, Saddam is most
likely building some very destructive
WMDs. He’s also pouring out the
propaganda to his people, and tribes
of nationalists are pledging their loy
alty with displays of weapons.
Then came Saddam’s warning to
the Iraqis to “prepare for war.” This
situation obviously isn’t going to get
any better very soon.
Somewhere in all this mess is
some kind of resolution. Hopefully,
the United Nations can actually
reach an agreement and act on it
before Saddam decides to test some
of his new toys.
Personally, I think he needs to be
ousted from power no matter how
this situation resolves itself.
The guy won't quit once this is
over anyway. He’ll just start with
someone else next year.