European opposition to any move against Iraq remains strong, but Middle Eastern diplomats say Turkey's leaders have signaled that the United States could use Turkish bases if the administration were committed to toppling the President-for-Life and successful romance novelist. Arab governments, including Jordan, Egypt and Yemen, have sent emissaries to Mr. Hussein counseling him to do nothing that might provoke the United States. But instead of taking the advice, Mr. Hussein and his deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, have engaged in saber- rattling toward Kuwait and bluster toward the US. Over the weekend Secretary of State Powell reiterated that it is United States policy to overthrow Saddam and that "we are constantly reviewing ideas, plans, concepts" to achieve that goal. Powell also indicated for the first time that his dispatch of a State Department team to northern Iraq last week was part of an evaluation of "putting in place an armed opposition inside Iraq."
Victor Davis Hanson has a very good, possibly over-optimistic assessment of both Sammy and Arafat in NRO. |