It’s High Time To Get Rid Of The Bad Guy

He’s ba-a-a-a-ck.

He’s got on the red beret and the olive-green uniform and he’s glowering at CNN cameras with that toothy, arrogant grin.

Once again, Saddam Hussein’s a prime-time nightmare, yanking our chain.

No use griping that George Bush, Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf should have bagged Saddam in 1991 before heading for the Desert Storm parades.

No use complaining Bush was wrong - boy, was he wrong - when he told a cheering Congress that the Gulf victory wiped out Saddam’s “arsenal of mass destructive weapons.”

No use yawning, ho-hum, here comes Saddam Crisis No. 1,001. We’re weary of no-fly zones, futile lobbing of cruise missiles, endless flaps over U.N. inspectors. Why does Saddam insist on messing up our pleasant, peaceful decade?

No use shrugging he’s a power-mad psychotic obsessed with the wacky idea he can avenge the Gulf War that left his tanks and Republican Guard in flaming shreds.

C’mon, haven’t we got the aircraft carrier Nimitz, 16 other warships, 200 warplanes on his doorstep? If things got nasty, we could bang Iraq with F-117A stealth fighters or B-52 bombers. Yawn, plant a few Tomahawk missiles in downtown Baghdad, Saddam the Menace will fade away.

But Saddam Crisis 1,001 may not be simple. Dangerously, this time he thinks he holds cards to take the pot.

A “win” for Saddam would mean shucking those snoopy U.N. inspectors. Then he’s got gung-ho freedom to stew a chemical, biological and nuclear broth to threaten Israel, Saudi Arabia and Europe. By 2000, he’s a bush-league Hitler.

Fantasy? Despite the White House’s feel-good bluster that Saddam is “in a box,” I suspect Bill Clinton is in the box.

That farcical, bark-no-bite U.N. condemnation of Saddam - a wrist slap that surely had him snickering - demonstrated Clinton’s problem: He’s playing an almost lone hand.

Sure, U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson talked tough. “Iraq must comply or face consequences. We are not excluding military options.”

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who earlier snarled that Saddam was a “congenital liar,” was militant. “We don’t seek a fight but we will never, never run from one.”

Beyond saber-waving, though, you could hear George Bush’s coalition of Desert Storm glory unraveling like a pair of $5 jeans.

One by one, flacks of France, Russia and China demurred: Do not aim one bomb or missile at Saddam’s red beret.

“Where’s their backbone?” asked Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “It’s very disappointing. They’re permitting Saddam to think he has the right to do as he pleases.”

The crass reasons for cowardice are oil and money - an old, old Middle East tale. France wants sanctions lifted to tap Iraq’s oil. Cash-poor Russia wants Saddam to repay debts. China lusts to peddle military goodies.

Some standup pals. And Arab states, sulking because the U.S. isn’t pressuring Israeli hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu into a peace deal, aren’t rushing to Clinton’s side.

With show-me-the-money grovelers like the French, Russians and Chinese, Clinton is almost friendless.

Sure, he could hope Saddam carries out his threat to fire at a U-2 spy plane overflight. “A big mistake,” said Clinton, echoing Ronald Reagan’s “make-my-day” line.

A U-2 attack would give Clinton a war signal to flog Iraq with missiles. Or he could wait for Saddam to toss out that pesky U.N. inspection team, another green light to trigger Tomahawks.

But there are signs Saddam is itching for a rumble - and isn’t cowed by U.S. aerial might.

He sees those $1.1 million Tomahawk missiles as pinpricks. He knows it took 24 to knock down his intelligence H.Q. in 1993. He knows the Pentagon’s wary about bombing with planes, cautious of having pilots paraded as trophies. What does Saddam care about Iraqi deaths? Took monstrous bombing to budge him from Kuwait.

Clinton might look like a hero to rally-‘round-the-flag Congressfolk if he hit Iraq. It would zoom his ratings, spruce up his legacy.

But for Saddam it’s a win-win game. He’s a Middle East martyr. He’s free to cook up his witches brew of doomsday weapons.

Ah, the real nightmare. Experts say Saddam could manufacture enough biological weapons - anthrax, botulinus, aflatoxin - to kill everybody on earth. He’s secreted tons of VX, the world’s most toxic nerve gas. He’s got leftover Scuds and other missiles to fling warheads into Jerusalem. He’d buy time to build primitive nuclear bombs.

Look, the guy may be a ha-ha caricature for late-night comics and cartoons. But Saddam’s a killer. Clinton, deserted by money-grubbing allies, will need cool luck in this edgy, prolonged chase.

“If we go in alone, we must do it right,” Bush said with Clinton at his side.

Old CIA hand Bush’s message was clear: Finish the job, terminate the bad guy.

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