Iraq’s weapons program is "too advanced and too dangerous to allow it to proceed unfettered," says Wallace Thies, politics professor at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

Although the Clinton administration seems determined to attack Iraq, Thies said objectives are unclear and it is not clear how attacks would be conducted. He notes several other considerations for the United States. Thies says:

• "U.S. law forbids assassinating foreign leaders. The U.S. goal is to oust Hussein, not to cause Iraq to break up. The latter could trigger a new war as Iraq's neighbors fight over the pieces."

• "What should the United States target to compel Iraq to change its policies? One possibility that the U.S. will consider is to weaken Hussein’s regime by targeting the police and army units that help keep him in power. The problem is innocent civilians can be killed in this kind of attack. There is no quick or easy way to use armed force to achieve US goals."

• "What will happen once Hussein is gone? A lot of Iraqis – not just Hussein and his clique – consider Kuwait an artificial entity created by the British when the British gave up its League of Nations mandate over territories that were formerly part of the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey). Even after Hussein is gone, there will likely be an Iraq-Kuwait ‘problem,’ which will drag in the United States, for many years to come."

Thies can be reached for interviews at: office 202-319-6230, home 301-774-1264. For more information, call Annamarie DeCarlo, 202-319-5600.

Revised: November 13, 1998

Revised: June 8, 1998