The Gulf War Team Is Back In Iraq
From the Chicago Tribune

The Bush administration didn't wait long to lay down a new marker to an old foe: Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

The air-strikes Friday by U.S. and British warplanes against Iraqi air defenses around Baghdad hit deliberately close to home for the Iraqi dictator.

The message from President Bush, coming less than a month after he took office, seems plain enough.

There's a new sheriff in town and Hussein better not push him. It was the first strike this close to the capital since 1998.

So there's a message for Hussein. There's also a message for the American people: Iraq remains a major piece of unfinished foreign policy business.

Like clockwork, U.S. and British warplanes have been flying missions, executing strikes and coming under fire as they enforce "no-fly" zones set up in 1991 to protect Hussein's opponents.

But those missions have become so routine that they rarely draw the kind of news media attention that Friday's dramatic strikes near Baghdad did.

Why strike now? Because Hussein never misses an opportunity to test a foe. True to form, he used the change in the White House to probe for weakness in the new administration and to further undermine international support for United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Iraq had increased its anti-aircraft fire tenfold against U.S. and British planes in the weeks since Bush took office.

Major mistake. Bush's senior advisers, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, ran and won the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Their rhetoric during the campaign couldn't have been more clear.

They put Hussein on notice that his threats and rearmament would not be tolerated.

Bush understandably felt he had to take a tough line from the outset to deter future attacks.

The airstrikes targeted command-and-control sites south of Baghdad that gave Iraq a better capability of targeting allied warplanes with surface-to-air missiles.

Bush can fairly say he was defending and protecting Western pilots. The larger challenge will be to craft a new Iraq policy.

Economic sanctions have contributed to immense suffering for ordinary Iraqis and gradually bred Arab resentment, but haven't forced Hussein from power.

On the 10th anniversary of the allied victory in the Gulf war, a growing number of coalition members are urging an end to the sanctions. Bush should listen.

Powell has wisely moderated his earlier vows to reinvigorate the sanctions. He is right to seek ways to tighten the arms embargo on Iraq, but he also ought to find a way to ease the economic sanctions hurting Iraqis.

Hussein should know-and he was reminded Friday-that if he threatens his neighbors or U.S. interests, he will pay a price.