Iraq and Roll?
USA
Today leads with the diplomatic efforts being undertaken to avoid U.S.
military action against Iraq. The Los Angeles
Times lead describes those efforts too, but emphasizes the nature of
the likely U.S. military response. The Washington Post leads with Madeleine Albright's frustration
with the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. And the New York Times
goes with the Clinton budget strategy.
USAT reports that besides Albright's whirlwind tour of the Middle
East, Iraq-related diplomacy is also being undertaken by Russia and France.
Also, the U.N.'s Kofi Annan has proposed loosening the strictures governing
Iraq's oil sales as an incentive for Iraqi cooperation with U.N. inspectors and
Albright said she supports that. Albright was in Kuwait yesterday and is bound
for Saudi Arabia today. An AP dispatch quoted in both USAT and the WSJ
states that the Saudis will not allow any Iraq strikes to originate from their
country.
USAT also says Newt Gingrich has signaled strong support for action
against Saddam, while his colleague Richard Armey has stressed the need for
prior Congressional review of any attack plan.
The LAT lead headline is quite clear: "U.S. Would Hit Iraq Hard
Despite the Likely Costs." But the text is anything but. High up, the reader is
told only that the U.S. game plan calls for taking "substantial military
action," which aims to "destroy key military props supporting Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein and affirm principles for the post-Cold War world." Reading
further on the front page does reveal the possibility of an expanded no-fly
zone, but mainly yields the "information" that after the action, the U.S. will
"put in place a post-strike program that would strengthen and potentially
broaden the U.N. mandate inside Iraq," which the reader "learns," will
"reconstitute" the U.N. weapons inspection team to "make it more effective as
it searches for weapons."
A nationwide poll that the LAT plays big both in an off-lead
story and a big top-of-the-page graphic suggests that by a large margin
Americans support the use of force against Iraq and additionally think the
purpose of an airstrike should be to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Most
respondents also dismiss the suggestion that President Clinton is preparing a
move against Iraq as a means of distracting attention from his own
problems.
The WP lead reports that in separate meetings Secretary of State
Albright privately scolded Israel and Palestinian leaders, telling them she is
"sick and tired of hearing you give me a pile full of complaints about the
other guy." The Post credits this quotation to "a senior U.S. official
with direct knowledge of the conversations." The NYT in its Albright
story sources the comment the same way. (Gee, given that the scoldings were
private, and that the knowledge was direct, who could that be?)
The WP , like USAT , also mentions Albright's pledge to Israel
of an "iron-clad commitment" to defend Israel in case it is attacked by Iraq,
but doesn't include Netanyahu's response, reported by USAT , that unlike
in 1991 during the Gulf War, Israel will now feel free to defend itself. The
NYT front-page Albright piece adds a further wrinkle, noting that
Albright responded, "It is up to each country to determine its own way to
defend itself."
The NYT lead points out that the main new social programs of the
Clinton budget--such as child-care programs and new teacher hiring--are linked
to congressional approval of the national tobacco settlement. And if Congress
fails to enact the tobacco deal thereby killing these programs, says the paper,
Democrats come away with a potent political issue: the Republicans favored the
tobacco industry over children and health. The Wall Street Journal 's Alan Murray thinks there will be some
sort of tobacco legislation this year. Congress, he says, is moving towards
enacting the parts of the settlement the tobacco companies don't like while
denying them the part they want--immunity from future lawsuits.
The WSJ reports that the GDP jumped 4.3 percent for the last quarter
of 1997 and that for all of 1997, the economy grew 3.8 percent, the best rate
in ten years.
The most newsy development in what "Today's Papers" had decided to call the
Whitefluid scandal is that yesterday, as reported in the WP , Monica
Lewinsky's lawyer revealed on one of his five (!) chat show appearances that
it's possible his client, who owns a share of a Australian condo, was
tape-recorded offering it to Linda Tripp in return for Tripp denying knowing
about Lewinsky's claim that she had a sexual relationship with President
Clinton.
