Word: pullouts
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Bush gave Saddam the Saturday deadline after a frustrating week of Soviet efforts to broker a deal that would be acceptable to both Iraq and the allies. Moscow had secured Baghdad's commitment to a supposedly "unconditional" pullout from Kuwait, but the agreement was accompanied by a string of conditions. Washington and its major partners advanced a number of reasons for rejecting the Soviet-mediated offer, ranging from simple distrust of Saddam to news of the scorched-earth policy in Kuwait. But the predominant reason was a feeling that delay was beginning to work against the allies. They were being...
...less worrisome if Saddam were not at the helm. His continuation in power would be a great disappointment to the allies. It is conceivable that a surrender, however artfully packaged, would leave Saddam vulnerable to a coup. The euphoria in Baghdad that initially greeted reports of the pullout offer suggests a high level of public anxiety over the war. To have been subjected to such horrific bombings and wind up with nothing to show for it might be too much for some Iraqis. But the decisive question is whether it would be too much for the small circle of officials...
This was a bombshell? At first glance it looked like a warmed-over version of an offer Saddam Hussein had made as early as Aug. 12, 10 days after his troops overran Kuwait -- but this time with even more conditions for an Iraqi pullout from the ravaged emirate. Iraq demanded not just an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza but also the removal of all allied troops from the Persian Gulf, including naval forces that have been on patrol there for decades. Plus forgiveness of all Iraqi debts. Plus reparations for the destruction caused by allied bombing. Plus...
...Hussein, the dictator, to step aside," he said, Iraq could quickly "rejoin the family of peace-loving nations." That finally put on the record something that had long been obvious: Washington would really like to get rid of Saddam and his regime altogether. It would settle for a complete pullout from Kuwait because it has no choice: the U.N. resolutions under which the allies are fighting specify that and nothing more as the aim. Achieving even that, however, might still take weeks of a hard-fought ground campaign...
Among other stipulations for withdrawal listed by the Bush spokesperson: Iraq forces must be removed from Kuwait City and prisoners of war released within the pullout's first two days; Iraq must remove booby traps and mines from Kuwait; it must cease destructive actions against Kuwaiti citizens and property, and release Kuwaiti prisoners...