Peddlers of amnesia.

• Author: Douglas, Susan
• Position: Criticism of US policy toward Iraq - Column

In few recent news stories has the chasm between media coverage and real events been more gaping than in the commentary about the U.S. confrontation with Iraq in September. That commentary was unanimous: Blow the "Butcher of Baghdad" back to kingdom come.

"Sodom," as pundits most frequently referred to him, is such a monster, so beyond the pale, so immune to arguments about self-interest and regional stability, that diplomacy is totally out of the question. As Sam Donaldson put it, "Saddam doesn't seem to understand any other means besides military means." Donaldson then elaborated as if he were reading for the lead in Under Siege: "We should take him out."

Though conflict among Kurdish factions precipitated this latest "crisis," rarely did the coverage focus on the Kurds. Why explain that when it's so much easier to play pin-the-missile-on-Saddam?

It has become impossible to criticize this Dr. Strangelove approach to U.S. foreign policy toward Iraq. If you offer a dissenting viewpoint, you are accused of defending a man allegedly worse than Adolph Hitler.

Everyone, it seems, wants to be Slim Pickens on the missile headed for Baghdad. Typical was a Newsweek editorial by Colonel David H. Hackworth entitled "It's Time to Get Rid of Saddam." Hackworth acknowledged, "We can't just kill Saddam." Why not? "Morality and U.S. law aside . . . it probably wouldn't work." But then, warming to his subject, the colonel envisioned a bombing mission that would put the Blitz to shame. The United States could hit "anti-aircraft facilities" and other targets from "armored vehicles to artillery positions to logistical depots" and in short order "the target-rich southern zone" of Iraq would be "pulverized." Yippie-ki-yoki-yea!

Madeleine Albright bragged on This Week With David Brinkley about the Administration's first missile strikes: "We really whacked him." The American "experts" brought in to discuss the confrontation were Senators Dick Lugar, Republican of Indiana, and Sam Nunn, Democrat of Georgia, both allegedly knowledgeable about the region.

Lugar's advice? "We need to break the back of Saddam Hussein.... His regime needs to be overthrown.... This week we need to blast them all over the country."

And Sam Nunn? The United States needs to go for "deeper, more lucrative targets.... We need to hit him and hit him hard." (Is Nunn in politics or pro football? I forget.)

These revenge fantasies can have lethal results. The U.S. government demonizes Saddam...