Thatcher as a Modern Boadicea

...That expedition generated a deep feeling of national purpose among Britons, who had long been relentlessly assailed with accounts of their country's decline as a world power...

...In 1982, it will be recalled, warships and troops were sent thousands of miles to retake the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic after Argentina invaded and captured them...

...Inflation is still running over 10 per cent, interest rates are still uncomfortably high, and the difficulties caused by both are being compounded by the uncertainties of the Kuwait situation...

...Nevertheless, whether an "Iraq Factor" will emerge to bail her out at the ballot box remains very much in doubt...

...Secretaryof State James A. Baker III and Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady had to be sent around the world with begging bowls...

...And she has made it clear that Saddam's sending British hostages to Iraqi strategic installations will not deter her from ordering British forces to join in bringing him down if necessary...

...The Seventh Armored Brigade—the "Desert Rats" who thrashed General Rommel's Afrika Korps 50 years ago—with more than 100 of its tanks suitably repainted in desert colors, has been transferred from NATO duty in Germany to Saudi Arabia...

...In its new role, the brigade is supported by other combat vehicles, attack helicopters, heavy artillery, and air defense missiles...

...Although the pressures have now been eased somewhat, they have not been eliminated...

...Norman Gelb is The New Leader's London correspondent...

...A man with a strong international perspective, he is genuinely concerned that Iraq's invasion of Kuwait might set a precedent for aggression elsewhere unless reversed...

...Her policy currently enjoys widespread popularity, but she is in a very exposed position politically...

...Far from reducing inflation, that is likely to have the opposite effect...

...Conservative imagemakers have sought to picture Thatcher as a new Boadicea challenging the despicable tyrant in the Middle East, just as the 1 st-century British warrior queen challenged the might of the Roman invaders of England...

...Thatcher deemed the move essential after a British Confederation of Industry survey concluded that business confidence had fallen to its lowest level in a decade...

...She is known to believe that Baghdad cannot be permitted to remain a threat to the region and to world peace...

...The commitment not to reduce interest rates from a punishing 15 per cent until inflation was brought under control has been abandoned...

...As the crisis drags on, however, he may not be able to resist sniping at aspects of Thatcher's stand on Iraq...

...If the Prime Minister's prospects for re-election depended on the strength of the much touted "special relationship" between Britain and the United States, she would be a shooin...

...His latest book, Dunkirk: The Complete Story of the First Step in the Defeat of Hitler, was recently published by William Morrow...

...Thatcher always thought the Foreign Office Arabists lived too much in thepast, and they have proved her right...

...The Iron Lady and the Gipper liked and admired each other...

...This time, Labor leader Neil Kinnock quickly voiced support for Thatcher's unhesitant seconding of the United States vow that Iraq would not be permitted to keep Kuwait, even if it meant war...

...But the Prime Minister's almost reflexive decision to stand alongside the United States in throwing down the gauntlet to Saddam apparently has shown the President who Washington could count oninacrunch...

...She has demanded that Saddam Hussein be required to withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait and to pay reparations for the damage done there by his plundering troops...

...only Britain did not have to be told what friends are for...

...But British government spokesmen admit too little evidence exists to justify confidence that a wider Middle East security plan could be fashioned out of the new association...

...Thus it has felt compelled to alter its economic strategy...

...He has suggested that though the former takes precedence, the latter might now be treated in the context of acceptable long-term security arrangements for the entire region...

...The sharp rise in fuel prices—gas has climbed to the equivalent of around $4.50 a gallon here—increased inflationary pressures at the very moment when the government was straining to reduce them in preparation for the next national elections...

...The Prime Minister, Conservative parliamentarians and the staff at Conservative Party headquarters here would prefer the crisis to be resolved without a war.Butthey also hope the British military display will produce something similar to the "Falklands Factor...

...Quite the contrary, the Falklands Factor contributed greatly to Thatcher's subsequent re-election...

...Labor Party criticism of the enormously expensive operation on behalf of a remote, minuscule remnant of the once proud British Empire, particularly in a period of dire domestic economic straits, earned no thanks from the electorate...

...Royal Air Force Tornado attack aircraft are on hand as well, and the Royal Navy is strongly represented in the Gulf to help enforce the embargo against Iraq...

...He wanted to establish closer links instead with Germany, the new superstate that will have the biggest clout in the Community and will be an ever more important element in world affairs...

...TAKING ON SADDAM HUSSEIN Thatcher as a Modern Boadicea BY NORMAN GELB London Iraq's seizure of Kuwait is likely to have a serious political impact in Britain, but whether it will be to Margaret Thatcher's advantage or detriment cannot yet be determined...

...The Prime Minister has assumed a very high profile in the Persian Gulf confrontation...

...It will be interesting to see whether the BritishAmerican special relationship will again be eclipsed by realpolitik once the latest Middle East episode is relegated to history...

...Indeed, they have been compelled to concede that the Arab world today is different from the one they imagined still existed—that it contains rivalries and centrifugal tendencies they never suspected would bring Egyptian and Syrian troops to Saudi Arabia to face the forces of Iraq...

...Unemployment levels were rising, and great numbers of homes were being repossessed from people unable to keep up their mortgage payments...

...A 1 per cent interest rate cut has been made, and may be followed soon by another small reduction...

...Like Thatcher, he believes that military action against Iraq must be the next step if economic sanctions do not soon persuade Saddam Hussein to back off...

...The relationship had been cooling conspicuously ever since George Bush replaced Ronald Reagan in the White House...

...He dismissed the knee-jerk condemnation of the Prime Minister by his party's left wing, asserting that it would be "an unprofitable exercise" to probe for "points of difference" with Thatcher on the crisis...

...Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, who has assumed the direction of those policies, has firm views of his own on how to deal with the Middle East...

...Among the losers here in the Kuwait affair are the Arabists who have been entrenched in the British Foreign Office for decades...

...Not since World War II has Britain aimed so much firepower at an aggressor nation...

...Nor did they ever expect to see the day when the King of Jordan, whose famous Arab Legion was a British creation, would be frigidly received at 10 Downing Street...

...Businesses were cutting back sharply, with many going to the wall...

...Their influence in formulating British policies will be substantially reduced in the future...

...There is much satisfaction in London over the ad hoc alliance between the West and key Arab states...

...But the present turn of events has proved humiliating for the Whitehall veterans...

...Because of Britain's historic role in the Middle East—with France it divided up the region into respective spheres of influence after World War I—close relationships have persisted between various Foreign Office mandarins and Arab leaders and potentates...

...No doubt, too, in the light of the Falklands experience and the opinion polls showing overwhelming approval of Thatcher's tough line on the Persian Gulf, Kinnock concluded that to take issue with her in this matter would be extremely damaging to Labor rather than merely unprofitable...

...Bush, by contrast, seemed bent on developing an unabashed pragmatic approach to a changing Europe, and saw Britain as a marginal player within the European Community...

...And while Baker, a proponent of downplaying the traditional BritishAmerican links, appeared to favor a negotiated settlement of the crisis, Thatcher, through visits and phone conversations, supported Bush's resolve not to permit Saddam to gain anything whatsoever from his act of aggression...

...Like Bush, Hurd has spoken in favor of linking the resolution of the Kuwait seizure and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...