THREAT OF SADDAM'S HATE STILL WITH US

So, after a lot of huffing and puffing, Saddam Hussein is letting the United Nations weapons inspectors he has just kicked out of Iraq -- including Americans -- back in. This, we are told, is the result of an agreement brokered, astonishingly, by Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who is known for having some sort of friendship with Saddam~ and for having opposed the use of military force by the international coalition during the Gulf War of 1990-91.

If all this is to be believed, then it would appear the immediate crisis has passed, for now. Crucial, unresolved issues remain. First among these, of course, is Saddam himself. With every year that passes, it looks more as if former President George Bush made a mistake when he took the advice of Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell and others who told him to stop short of sending his forces in to finish Saddam once and for all. The man is an international outlaw, a gangster with no parallel on the world stage, and few ever. As long as he is around to menace the peace, the world is a far more unstable place. The time to have dispatched this monster was when we had a half-million men under arms in the region. But we didn't.

Are we the only ones who sense that something is badly wrong when American foreign policy officials allow a Russian friend of Saddam's to broker an agreement such as this? Although on the surface perhaps a satisfactory result, it seems clear that Saddam, having had three weeks to hide chemical and biological weapons from the U.N. inspectors, is now stronger than he has been any time since the Gulf War.

Midst the relief among Americans that armed conflict was averted for now, reflect on the fact that we'll probably have to deal with a strengthened Saddam down the road. A grim prospect indeed, until he is finally dealt with, once and for all.