The Press : Sequel in the Sand

Iraqi forces massing along the Kuwaiti border. The White House draws a line in the sand and orders American planes, ships and troops back to the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf crisis of 1990-91 was on replay, it seemed to the world’s editorial cartoonists, who once again picked up their pens to savage Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and take a few shots at President Clinton too.

By Monday, Baghdad’s U.N. Ambassador Nizar Hamdoun declared to a nervous world that Hussein’s legions were withdrawing northward. Clinton scheduled his news conference to brief America. But the Kuwaitis weren’t fully buying Monday’s developments. “This is a cat-and-mouse game, and we can’t tolerate it,” said Kuwaiti Information Minister Saud al Sabah.

Was it an invasion cut short by quick American response? Was it a show of force to intimidate the Big Powers into lifting international sanctions on Iraq, a question before the Security Council this week? The reasons were still unknown as the cartoonists’ ink was drying.