ncipal players in the developing scenarioùIraq and the United States, together with their representatives, are identified.
The question investigated through the conduct of this study is relevant because the outcome of the situation holds important implications for parties beyond the two principal actors in the contemporary disputeùPresident William Clinton of the United States and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The future economic and social well-being of the population of Iraq is at stake. Should the sanctions continue indefinitely, the people of Iraq will experience severe distress. Should Iraq be subjected to an intense military attach, the people of the country will experience severe distress of a different type. The credibility of United States motives in the Middle East is at stake. Few people outside of the United States and the United Kingdom believe that the publicly proclaimed motivations of the United States government with respect to this issue are the real motivations for American policy towards Iraq. The United States government states that its objectives are to assure that Iraq does not possess the capacity to constitute a serious military threat to its neighbors and that the country does not possess nor retain the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction that could threaten the security of peoples beyond the Middle East region. There is a widely held belief around the world, however, that the United States would forego these objectives, as it has in the case of Israel, if it could remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and install an Iraqi leader more to its liking. Further, there is a belief that is widely held even in the United States that the most important objective of the United States government in the confrontation with Iraq is the protection of control of the petroleum reserves in the Middle East region, which now is held by Middle East governments friendly to the United States.
T...