Sorry Case Of It Taking One To Know One

I want to believe the president of my country. I sincerely do.

I do believe that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons that he is preparing to use on somebody, possibly his own people again, possibly a neighbor and possibly even Israel - which could launch World War III (recently forecast by Boris Yeltsin), even Armageddon.

I do believe Bill Clinton when he says Saddam has violated his post-Gulf War agreement to open up various sites to inspection by U.N. teams. But I wonder why it has taken us until this moment to respond, especially since his violations were evident just 15 days after the Gulf War ended. It couldn’t have anything to do with Clinton’s other enemy - himself - could it?

The problem for me, and I suspect for a lot of other people, is the president’s accusations that Saddam Hussein is a liar. About the inspectors, Clinton said Saddam “lied to them, disabled monitoring cameras, literally spirited evidence out of the back doors of suspect facilities as inspectors walked through the front door. And our people were there observing it and had the pictures to prove it.”

Remember documents that didn’t exist and then suddenly did? Remember the Riadys and suspect campaign cash? Remember the FBI files; the White House travel office; secretive health care meetings by Hillary Clinton, along with her cattle futures deal; and Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky and many other women in between?

And then there was Clinton’s complaint about Saddam’s response to U.N. inspectors: “The inspection system has worked in the face of lies, stonewalling, obstacle after obstacle after obstacle.” Sen. Fred Thompson’s, R-Tenn., Governmental Affairs Committee and Rep. Dan Burton’s, R-Ind., Government Reform and Oversight Committee are encountering considerable stonewalling and obstacle after obstacle in attempts to get at the truth about campaign fund raising.

For Clinton, whose career has been built and sustained on lies, calling Saddam a liar doesn’t pack the punch it might with someone of greater integrity. And then what was this little phrase about comparing Saddam’s “presidential palaces” sitting on 40,000 acres of land with the White House, which occupies 18 acres: “We’re not talking about a few rooms here with delicate personal matters involved.” What could Clinton have meant by “delicate personal matters” in a “few rooms”?

The president also contends that our military, whose strength has been cut by more than 40 percent since this administration took office, is the “best-prepared, best-equipped, best-trained fighting force in the world.” That may be true, compared to other nations, but our military is not what it was in size or strength seven years ago during the Gulf War. That’s one reason why we’re not using ground troops and why bombs and rockets will fall from the safest possible distances to minimize casualties, a large number of which this draft-avoiding president could not absorb politically.

The scene at the Pentagon Tuesday resembled a political rally. Defense Secretary William Cohen introduced Al Gore with a speech that sounded like an endorsement for his expected presidential run. Cohen called him a foreign policy expert and supporter of the president’s policy. It was Gore who denounced a similar policy in 1991 and criticized George Bush for going to war.

Bush majored in foreign affairs and built solid relationships with world leaders. Clinton majors in affairs of a different sort and is a small man whose skills are that of an illusionist. He can fool many of his fellow countrymen but can’t fool a tough guy like Saddam Hussein.

The foreign press tells a profound story. Seven years ago, Middle East and Persian newspapers denounced George Bush in mostly macho terms. Today, Clinton is characterized in newspapers from Baghdad to Cairo as a weakling and his alleged sexual affairs are ridiculed as those of a self-indulgent, feeble man. No amount of bombs falling from the sky are likely to erase that image.

What if the bombs produce the very horror they’re supposed to deter, releasing biological and chemical agents into the atmosphere? What will happen to Israel, which is already stocking up on gas masks and tape to seal houses? Most Arab nations have not joined the anemic coalition that includes such military powers as Hungary, The Netherlands and Argentina. Will we further bolster Saddam in the eyes of the Arab world if he takes a licking and keeps on ticking?

Whatever this president tells us about that probably won’t be the whole truth, either.

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