DATE=03/02/01

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=U-S/IRAQ

NUMBER=6-12225

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=YES

CONTENT=

INTRO: With support for United Nations economic sanctions against Iraq waning, the Bush administration is reassessing U-S policy toward Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein. Secretary of State Colin Powell, during his recent tour of the Middle East, talked of a sanctions strategy that would allow much more trade with the country, while focusing sanctions on military goods. We get a sampling of U-S editorial comment from ____________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: The main criticism of the sanctions against Iraq, which were applied shortly after the Gulf War, is that they hurt the Iraqi citizens, but not Saddam Hussein. He is allowed to sell a specified amount of Iraqi crude oil, under United Nations supervision, and use the proceeds to buy food and medical supplies for his people.

The system apparently is being circumvented. We begin our sampling in Central Florida, with The Orlando Sentinel.

VOICE: If Mr. Bush wants to try something really new, he will have to think boldly. No, that doesn't mean planning a full-scale assault and invasion, like the one his father launched against Iraq a decade ago for brutalizing Kuwait. Some substantive policy changes, though, would signal Iraq that the old game has changed and that the United States is through simply reacting to Mr. Hussein's bad-boy antics. Those should include: Shifting gears on international economic sanctions. They haven't worked.

... Mr. Hussein ... has chosen to allow his people to suffer... [using] the suffering as a propaganda tool to paint the United States as the enemy of the Iraqi people. ... The Bush administration could dispute that by lobbying to lift the sanctions, thereby shifting the burden of responsibility to Mr. Hussein. He might well continue to deprive his people. But he would have no one to blame but himself.

TEXT: The Detroit [Michigan] News is skeptical of any sanctions policy change.

VOICE: ... Secretary of State Colin Powell ... deserves credit for recognizing that the decade-long embargo is no longer sustainable. However, the Bush administration should not pretend ... the new sanctions approach will succeed any better than the old one in tempering the threat ... Iraq poses to its neighbors. ... Weapons interdiction is unlikely to permanently thwart Saddam.

TEXT: The San Francisco Chronicle says:

VOICE: Ten years after the Persian Gulf War, and with a new administration in the White House, is a propitious time to reconsider the failed economic embargo against Iraq. The villainous Saddam Hussein remains in power, the Iraqi civilian population is suffering severely and few of our Arab allies in the region support the sanctions. ... So we applaud Secretary of State ... Powell's plan which he calls "smart sanctions" to ease the boycott on vital civilian goods and tighten bans on military equipment and materials...

TEXT: "Give Colin Powell credit," says Ohio's Columbus Dispatch.

VOICE: He didn't ease into his new job as ... secretary of state; He jumped right into one of the nastiest foreign-policy thickets around: The Middle East. ... Only in Kuwait did [Secretary] Powell find an unqualified warm welcome ... In Israel, [Mr.] Powell was confronted by a violent stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians ... In visits with regional Arab leaders, ... [he] was able to gauge how far former Arab allies in the anti-Iraqi coalition have drifted since the 1991 war.

TEXT: From Rhode Island, The Providence Journal is also pleased, suggesting that:

VOICE: Secretary ... Powell's statement ... calling for changes in the sanctions ... is welcome, and a demonstration that the Bush administration has a more realistic view of this matter than did the Clinton administration...

TEXT: The [Baltimore] Sun wonders how easy it will be for the new U-S administration to find "a consensus on smarter sanctions."

VOICE: Mr. Powell seeks to make the sanctions smaller and "smarter," a code-word for targeting government leaders, not the Iraqi people. Food and medicine move now, but dictator Saddam Hussein sees to it that his people suffer and much of the world blames the sanctions, not him. But through the United Nations sanctions committee, the U-S has blocked some 16-hundred contracts worth nearly three-billion dollars for "dual use" goods - those which might be for military or civilian purposes.

Smart sanctions would have allowed most of them, and sanctions-busting trade by oil-hungry nations flouts restrictions anyway. ... Sanctions were never meant to last forever. Nor were they intended ... to bring down the tyrant. They were adopted to prevent Iraq from acquiring or building nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missiles to deliver them.

TEXT: The views of The [Baltimore] Sun.

Lastly, in the Pacific Northwest, Portland's Oregonian says it is "Time for new ideas on Iraq."

VOICE: With the collapse of all United Nations inspections of Iraq's weapons-building capacity, the American policy now consists of a trade embargo and the occasional bombing. But much of the rest of the world opposes the blockade and finds ways around it and protests at the bombings. Meanwhile, while Saddam blames the embargo for a horrific toll of misery and death among Iraqis, especially children, his dealings are bringing in plenty of money for him to continue his weapons research and build himself scores of new palaces.

... Right now, we can't be sure how much our [present] policy is hurting Saddam, but we know that it's hurting us with other Arab regimes and even European allies. Finding another approach such as swapping an end to sanctions for a return to weapons inspections may not be easy, because the current situation, however hard it is on the Iraqi people, largely suits Saddam's personal agenda.

TEXT: With that editorial excerpt from The Oregonian, in Portland, we conclude this sampling of comment.

NEB/ANG/TDW