War Against Iraq

SEDGEFIELD, England - The obvious target of the next United Nations Security Council vote on Iraq is Saddam Hussein, but the decision-making - the if and when of whether to wage war to disarm him - looks increasingly like it could cause an unintended casualty: the political career of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. That is reflected in defections within Blair's own party - even his Cabinet - and in opinion polls in Britain, which show that public support for a war against Iraq hinges on a second resolution from the Security Council.

WASHINGTON -- The solid reasons for going to war with Iraq -- and rebuilding that nation as a democracy -- are cogently and succinctly sketched in Lawrence Kaplan and William Kristol's slim volume The War Against Iraq. The case does not rest upon humanitarian concerns alone, but if it did, it would still be powerful. The tyranny that Saddam Hussein has imposed on Iraq has few equals in the world today. International human rights groups, as well as the United Nations, report that some 16,000 Iraqis have disappeared, never to be accounted for. Mr. Hussein's agents are everywhere searching out evidence of disloyalty.

Containment has kept Iraq under control President Bush responded to the recent worldwide protests against a possible war against Iraq by saying he respectfully disagrees "with those who do not view Saddam Hussein as a threat" ("Bush left unmoved by war protests," Feb. 19). That statement missed the point entirely. Just about everyone recognizes that Mr. Hussein poses a threat to the world. The protesters were making the point that going to war is not necessarily the only or best way of countering the Iraqi threat.

IN THE face of widespread opposition to rushing to war against Iraq, Bush administration officials have underscored the urgency to act by trying to link the Baghdad regime to al-Qaida. Initially, U.S. officials were reluctant to draw a direct link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's network for lack of solid evidence. They have now thrown caution to the wind in order to show al-Qaida is "in partnership" with Iraq. Some CIA analysts reportedly complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence information about Iraq and its potential links to terrorism in order to strengthen their political argument for war. Although CIA Director George J. Tenet closed ranks with the administration and told the Senate Intelligence Committee that spy agencies had unearthed powerful evidence showing a connection, he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein does not have operational control over a terror cell headed by an Islamist terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in Baghdad.

The World The United States, joined by Britain and Spain, proposed a new U.N. resolution to support a war against Iraq because Saddam Hussein has failed to comply with earlier resolutions demanding that he disarm. Saddam Hussein, in an interview with CBS anchor Dan Rather, challenged President Bush to a debate, an idea the White House rejected. Iraq agreed "in principle" to destroy its Al Samoud 2 missiles that the U.N. inspection team said can fly farther than the 93-mile limit imposed by the disarmament agreement.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - He is white-haired and slightly bowlegged, but with crystalline blue eyes and a ruddy face that bears the glowing look of a man who feels that - in the autumn of his life - he is exactly where he ought to be. Godfrey Meynell, former British colonial officer in Aden, former high sheriff of Derby, former Home Office civil servant, former independent Green candidate for Parliament, a self-described loyalist of church and queen, is spending his...

In an interview Tuesday with the Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld laid out again the case for war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Among other crimes, he said, Iraq "used chemical weapons on its neighbor Iran." The defense secretary has reason to remember that crime. It was taking place in December 1983, when Rumsfeld met with Hussein as a special envoy of President Ronald Reagan. But his mission then was to improve U.S.-Iraqi relations, assure Hussein that Iran was their common enemy and promote an oil pipeline project.

ANKARA, Turkey - After months of foot-dragging, Turkey's government asked Parliament yesterday to authorize the basing of 62,000 U.S. troops in Turkey for use in a possible war against Iraq. A vote is expected this week. The government sent the proposal to Parliament even though it is negotiating with the United States on terms of deployment and the size of an aid package. Turkey has been demanding billions of dollars in grants and loans in exchange for its support in a war against Iraq.

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait - It's after midnight, but the dozen men of the Sabah al-Salem neighborhood gathered in a second-floor banquet room have no plans to go home yet. They order more cups of tea and coffee. They light cigarettes. They prop themselves up on plush crimson pillows. They want to talk more about a possible U.S.-led war against their neighbor, Iraq. A young schoolteacher opposed to war asks how an Iraqi family would feel if U.S. soldiers accidentally killed an innocent son or daughter during an attack.