Photo by AP/Iraqi National Agency

Saddam Hussein
gained a short-
term victory this
time around

and Losers

The latest crisis
with Iraq
has provided
interesting
scoreboard results.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

T

he latest confrontation with
Iraq was like a TV rerun; it
was an old story, and as
soon as it began we all had
a pretty good idea how the script
would end. Saddam Hussein, as usual,
will return in the next episode, as vil-
lainous as ever.
But don't change channels.
Saddam, with his chemical and bio-
logical weapons, missiles and maybe
eyen anthrax-spraying drone aircraft,
is a real danger, not a cartoon charac-
ter.
This latest installment in "Saddam

Vs. The World" is still playing out —
early this week, the Iraqi leader already
was playing games with U.N. weapons
inspectors — so it's difficult to draw
sweeping conclusions. Still, there are
some fairly obvious winners and
losers:
* ISRAEL won in the sense that no
Scud missiles or worse were hurled at
her cities. Still, this latest confronta-
tion with Saddam weakened Israel
diplomatically and threatened her
long-term security.
The crisis represented another set-
back for a government in Jerusalem
that already was under fire for its

peace policies. Many Arab leaders
excused their reluctance to stand
behind Washington by pointing to the
deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian talks,
which they see as Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu's fault.
Worse, that view is shared by some
administration officials, starting with
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
who bluntly told the Israeli leader that
his recent actions had harmed U.S.
interests.
You don't have to be Henry
Kissinger to realize that will have a
damaging impact on U.S.-Israeli rela-
tions.

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