1.   At the time, the Iraqi strongman was not yet an international byword for treachery and brutality, but his reputation was already thoroughly bloodstained.

2.   But consider what happens to those who cross the Iraqi strongman.

3.   From a diplomatic standpoint, the air strikes were intended to persuade Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein to end his military offensive against Kurdish opposition forces in Iraq.

4.   Politically, the crude but cagey Iraqi strongman may already have won the pot.

5.   There would be an almost irresistible demand in the United States to eliminate the Iraqi strongman once and for all by force.

6.   Not only has Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein had to watch his economy and infrastructure crumble, he now has seen part of his family head for the border.