WHO'S FOOLING WHOM?

Saddam Hussein says yet again that he is quite happy to open up all his nuclear facilities for UN inspection. The United States says it does not believe him (yet again) and this time threatens military strikes against known nuclear plants. There is an unavoidable sense that Iraq's potential nuclear capability is being used by both sides as a useful source of tension and confrontation – for Saddam Hussein to rebuild his image as an Arab leader capable of standing up to US bullying, and for the President Bush as an excuse to take another, perhaps this time fatal, blow at the seemingly irremovable Iraqi leader.