Déjà vu in the desert. Once again US troops head to the Persian Gulf to
counter an Iraqi threat against Kuwait. The massive US deployment follows an
Iraqi build up along the Kuwaiti border, including about 20,000 troops from
Baghdad's Republican Guard. The Clinton administration responds with a show of
force and a word of warning. "Our policy is clear: we will not allow Iraq to
threaten its neighbors or to intimidate the United Nations as it ensures that
Iraq never again possesses weapons of mass destruction." Russia marches into the
middle of the fray to try to defuse the crisis. After the week-long faceoff with
the United States, Saddam Hussein finally blinks. "As a gesture of goodwill to the
Iraqi friends it has decided to withdraw the armed forces in question deeper into
Iraq." Iraqi troops draw back to their positions before the crisis, and what
could have been another Desert Storm amounts to little more than thundering.