The policy problem that will be examined is the current confrontation between Iraq and the United States over the refusal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow United Nations weapons inspectors. The essential questions that need answering in relation to this problem are as follows:
1. Should the United States continue to push for a military strike by refusing to agree to any compromise solution?
2. Should Iraq, in the face of the military threat from the United States, continue to resist unrestricted inspections within its national borders by the United Nations weapons inspectors?
There are many relevant actors involved in this issue. The political leaders in both the United States are relevant actors, as are the political leaders and diplomatic representatives of each of the member nations of the United Nations Security Council and of the several states of the Middle East. The Secretary General of the United Nations also is a relevant actor.
The most significant of the relevant actors in this crisis, however, are President William Clinton of the United States and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Each of these actors has the unilateral power to diffuse the crisis. By contrast, it would be difficult for all of the other relevant actors acting in concert to diffuse the crisis in the absence of some conciliatory action on the part of either or both Presidents Clinton and Saddam.
Perspective From Which the Problem Will Be Approached
The perspective from which this problem will be approached is that of an adviser to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The settlement of this crisis is important for not Iraq and the United States, but also to the rest of the world. While the issue is couched in terms of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of an unstable political despot (Saddam, not Clinton), the issue of a culture clash involving Islam and the West, as des
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