As President Clinton gropes for additional reasons to bomb Iraq, he makes dangerous assumptions about the effect of his threats and, potenially, actions. Before he orders the missiles to be fired, he should explain what he hopes to gain by trying to punish a leader who, unlike him, does not feel his people’s pain.

Saddam Hussein is a nasty individual. A thoroughly despicable person, a man lacking the compassion of a cockroach. The world would be a better place if he were packed aboard the next NASA deep-space probe and sent beyond Jupiter. But a little perspective is needed. Until he overstepped his boundaries and invaded Kuwait, Saddam was a U.S. buddy, the guy who pounded away at Iran. Some of the weapons of mass destruction he used there had “Made in the USA” stamped all over them. His power is partly due to Washington’s earlier support.

Let’s not compound that mistake. By making the argument that the United States should bomb Iraq for Saddam’s failure to fully meet U.N. resolutions, President Clinton threatens to make Saddam a hero in the Middle East.

The Iraqi president, according to Mr. Clinton, would not be the target of any U.S. bombing, and, even if he were, there’s no evidence that he could be hit. So imagine the United States attacking selected targets, killing innocent Iraqis who have the double misfortune of living under Saddam and near convenient military targets, and then having the Iraqi president emerge from hiding. He walks the debris-laden streets, comforting the new homeless and kissing babies, waves a victory sign and declares that his nation has once again stood up to and defeated the world’s lone superpower.

Question: How does this advance the U.S. position on the Security Council resolutions? Surely, the White House doesn’t think that increasing the suffering of Iraqis is likely to make their leader capitulate. He has already done worse to them himself than anything the United States is contemplating and has not seem to have lost sleep over it.

The president has also yet to explain why he in such a hurry to start firing. Iraq’s neighbors, with the exception of Kuwait, have said they aren’t particularly concerned about Saddam, who has been defying U.N. resolutions for seven years. If they aren’t worried, there is no reason for President Clinton to wear the frowny, we’re-about-to-bomb face he showed off at his press conference Tuesday.

U.S. officials are forever trotting around the globe, standing between angry parties and urging both sides to stay at the negotiating table. That’s good advice, and before more innocent Iraqis are killed through U.S. frustration, the president should commit to it.