The Gulf: The Center Holds - for Now

Backed further and further into a corner, Saddam Hussein has applied his energies to splintering the motley alliance of nations mustered against him. He attempted to paralyze some Western countries by making hostages of the foreign nationals caught in his grip. He sought to fragment his fellow Arabs by pitting the poor against the rich. He tried to crack the global economic sanctions imposed against him by making a hasty and generous peace with Iran. And he attempted to exploit anti-Americanism, always a potent force, by casting U.S. intervention in the gulf as a case of Yankee imperialism run amuck.

So...