No Menace to Neighbors

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Iraq has neither threatened nor attacked any Middle Eastern states not involved in territorial disputes with it.

It is said that the truth is the first casualty of war. Much of what Americans today unquestioningly believe about Iraq, including the notion that it is a country governed by mad men and is a menace to its neighbors, is the product of deliberate indoctrination and war hysteria.

This is a new perception. Eight years ago, when Iraqi troops marched into Kuwait in August 1990, Iraq--represented by the person of its president, Saddam Hussein--suddenly emerged as the new great menace in the Middle East. Until then, with the exception of its perennial territorial dispute over Shatt el-Arab with Iran, Iraq was not perceived as dangerous or particularly hostile to the United States or U.S. interests or friends and allies in the Middle …