President Clinton has handled threats this week from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein cooly and properly, but if is he to advance a military solution he would benefit from a lesson President George Bush taught last time a significant number of U.S. warships headed for the Persian Gulf. The former president carefully built a coalition of nations, including some of Iraq’s neighbors, willing to stand against Iraq. President Clinton would be wise to do the same.

Any question about U.S. superiority of firepower was answered seven years ago in the Gulf War, but this is not solely a question of who has more missiles. Saddam has demonstrated that he cares little for sacrificing his countrymen and women in the name of defying the United States. This instance of ignoring agreed-to United Nations inspections would be no different. Unless, President Clinton has a secret plan for dropping a missile on the Iraqi leader’s head, he will also need political support to back the United States during and after any conflict.

Several years ago, after U.S. troops failed to land in Haiti, then-senator, now-Secretary of Defense William Cohen outlined part of his apprach to U.S. intervention. “Whenever you commit forces,” he said, “you should do so with overwhelming numbers. You should engage with big and strong, and if you cannot engage with big and strong, do not engage at all. That ought to be the message to any nation or group of people who would seek to oppose the effort to provide humanitarian assistance if we decide to go in.”

U.S. weaponry is not a question; allied support, at this point, is — it isn’t “big and strong.” The United States should seek support from other nations in its confrontation with Iraq if for no other reason than to avoid making this a purely U.S.-Iraqi, Clinton-Saddam fight. It is much larger, with particularly serious implications for bordering countries.

In a speech yesterday, President Clinton emphasized the importance of the U.N. weapons inspectors by pointing out that they are responsible for disarming more Iraqi missiles than were taken out during the Gulf War. But their work is far from finished, and it will require an alert, cooperative U.N. Security Council to stand with the United States to stop the dangerous production of these weapons in Iraq.

Speaking yesterday to reporters, the president said the Iraq crisis “is not just a replay of the Gulf War. This is about the security of the 21st century and the problems everybody is going to have to face, dealing with chemical weapons.” He is correct, everybody will have to face them, so let’s bring everybody aboard now.