U.S. Muscle-Flexing

While diplomats debated the Fahd peace plan throughout the Middle East, and Arab gulf state potentates met in Riyadh to discuss security arrangements, the U.S. was taking action of quite a different kind last week to buttress the region. The effort involved a long-planned sequence of military exercises in four friendly countries—Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and Oman—occurring over a month's time and involving some 6,000 U.S. personnel. Code-named Bright Star '82, the maneuvers are the biggest trial run yet for the still nebulous U.S. Rapid Deployment Force, which is eventually supposed to have 200,000...