Not only because the United States is the most powerful nation the world has ever seen and it is enraging to believe that we cannot rid ourselves of this loathesome dictator with the flick of a finger, but because we as Americans like to solve our problems. Containment is an admission that we cannot find a quick solution to a difficult problem. I too share popular frustrations with containment. I too would like to find a way to get rid of Saddam Husayn. But I am forced to accept the logic that containment is our best course of action toward Iraq.
Containment is our only reasonable course of action toward Iraq.
There are essentially two alternatives to some form of containment. Mr. Chairman, we tried this approach in the 1980s and it failed. I would like to believe that we learn from our mistakes, rather than repeat them. Saddam Husayn has demonstrated that his aspirations and idiosyncracies make him uniquely threatening to the region. What is more, since the Gulf War, Saddam has concluded in a way he had not before that the United States is his implacable adversary and the greatest obstacle to his ambitions.