Saddam Hussein is stalling.

The possibility of disarmament talks --- his most recent attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the world --- is a tactic to divide the United Nations Security Council and dodge Iraq's disarmament obligations.

In the meantime, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday that "there probably will be a war with Iraq." On Monday, Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw the war in Afghanistan, delivered to the White House the latest Pentagon plan for an invasion of Iraq.

Tony Blair has pointed out that Iraq has violated 23 U.N. resolutions, yet Germany and France won't support an attack without a new Security Council resolution. Despite international opposition, the Bush administration has made it clear that a United States attack on Iraq would not require any further U.N. mandate.

In the midst of all this diplomacy, one thing is frighteningly clear: Saddam represents a grave threat to the security of the world. Since 1998, he has been able to develop an arsenal that the rest of the world knows nothing about.

Those contemplating the evil of Saddam Hussein often mention that he used chemical and biological weapons against his own people, but rarely are the scope and horror of his genocide against the Kurds considered. According to Human Rights Watch, between 50,000 and 100,000 Kurds died in a series of chemical and biological attacks Saddam perpetrated in 1988.

The grim details of unspeakable horror are difficult to stomach.

"We wanted to stay in hiding, even though we were getting sick," one victim remembered in a recent issue of The New Yorker. "My sister came close to my face and said, 'Your eyes are very red.' Then the children started throwing up. They kept throwing up. They were in so much pain, and crying so much. They were crying all the time. My mother was crying. Then the old people started throwing up."

Why should we care what happened to the Kurds in 1988?

Aside from the obvious moral concern about genocide, we should care because the effects of Saddam's attack on the Kurds are still making their terrifying presence known. Millions of Kurds were exposed to Saddam's chemical and biological weapons, and the future of Iraq's Kurdish people depends upon the kind of medical care they receive now.

Birth defects and cancers are rampant. Abnormal births outnumber normal ones. Colon cancer, miscarriage and infertility have increased to staggering levels. Yet these people continue to be oppressed by a brutal dictatorship.

Since Saddam kicked U.N. weapons inspectors out nearly four years ago, what kind of weapons has he been working on? Has he used the death of thousands of Kurds as some kind of sick science project --- fine-tuning a combination of mustard gas, sarin and VX?

Or has he been developing a biological weapon known as Aflatoxin, which is produced from types of fungi that occur in moldy grains?

Has he gone nuclear? Does he have dirty bombs?

The truth is that we don't know what Saddam has been up to. One thing we do know, however, is that Saddam wants to wipe Israel off the face of the map. Destroying the state of Israel would give the egocentric dictator what he considers to be his rightful place in history.

Saddam wants to project himself as a leader of all the Arabs, and he's convinced that the one sure way to do that is by confronting Israel. To achieve this goal, Saddam resorts to terrorism, offering families of suicide bombers $10,000 in exchange for the martyrdom of their children. But this may be only the beginning of a violent strategy against Israel.

In tightly scripted public appearances, Saddam frequently asks a rhetorical question: "Who is going to fire the fortieth missile?" This is a reference to the 39 Scud missiles he fired at Israel during the Gulf War.

The question the civilized world is now confronted with is this: How can we accomplish a regime change in Iraq?

The old policy of containing Saddam isn't working. Millions of Kurds need serious medical help. If we wait too long, millions of Israelis will, too.

Contact Mike Pope at 599-2173 or mpope@taldem.com.