Saddam Doesn't Get the Message

ENOUGH WAS FINALLY ENOUGH FOR GEORGE BUSH. He had simmered through weeks of Saddam Hussein's devilishly creative cheating on U.N. Security Council resolutions. The Iraqis kept piling on the defiance with daily forays into Kuwaiti territory to haul away weapons and equipment, while Saddam continued to play a shell game with antiaircraft missiles in the southern no-fly zone of Iraq. Faced with such brazenness at the beginning of his last week in the White House, Bush raged against the dying of his presidency.

The attack was first ordered on Monday. But bad weather delayed its execution until Wednesday night, when 80 U.S. Navy and Air Force planes took off from the carrier Kitty Hawk and four air bases in Saudi Arabia. With 30 French and British warplanes joining in, they struck four SAM missile and four radar emplacements in the no-fly zone. Iraq responded with only light antiaircraft fire, and all the allied planes returned safely.

Sizing up the effects of what it called "a very small mission," the Pentagon reported that the bombs had destroyed only one missile battery and damaged the radar installations. Destruction wasn't the point, Washington insisted, because the intended message was political. Said Bush: "I would think that Saddam Hussein would understand that we mean what we say, and that we back it up." Bill Clinton told a news conference in Little Rock that his policy toward Iraq is the same as Bush's.

Saddam, with his usual bluster, warned Iraqis that "another great battle" had begun. After another ultimatum from Bush on Friday, the Iraqis promised to allow weapons inspectors to fly to Baghdad, but would not guarantee their safety. The crisis escalated through the weekend when Iraqi radar threatened U.S. jets over the northern no-fly zone and an American F-16 shot down an Iraqi MiG-29. Baghdad seemed intent on contesting control of its skies. Washington said that Saddam would receive no further warning before the U.S. retaliated in force. (See related story on page 44.)