Still defiant, Saddam Hussein continues to challenge the no-fly zone enforced by U.N. forces in the Persian Gulf.

Confrontation between the United Nations and Saddam Hussein has become a frequent occurrence.

Many people believe Hussein has nothing to lose and everything to gain by challenging the no-fly zone, said Patrick James, chairman of the political science department.

“I think what he is accomplishing by doing this is strengthening his position at home and around the world,” James said.

“He is trying to make the action of the West look evil and make Saddam look like the great protector of people of Iraq and that he is just defending himself,” he said.

Donald Snyder, freshman in chemical engineering, believes that the best thing to do is to remove Hussein from power.

“I think that we should take him … out,” Snyder said. “He is a threat to the United States and his neighbors, and he needs to be stopped.”

Snyder said it is important to take strong offensive action against Hussein to prevent worse things from happening in the future.

“Saddam is playing games with us, and as long as he is in power, he is dangerous,” he said. “We did not step in and stop Hitler, and look what he almost did.”

Chris Martin, freshman in political science, agreed that the United States needs to ensure that Hussein is removed from power.

“Getting him out of power is the only way we can relieve this tension in the Gulf,” Martin said.

“I don’t think air strikes are enough to do the job. He has been playing games with us for years — it needs to stop,” Martin said.

However, James said the United Nations needs to worry about what might happen if Hussein is taken out of power.

“If Saddam is forced from power, the day then dawns on what replaces him,” he said.

“Iraq is not a democratic country, and a different strongman will pop up. He may not be as annoying or aggravating as Saddam, but few things will change,” James said.

Government of the Student Body President Bryan Burkhardt said the United States also needs to worry about its reputation and standing in the world community.

“We need to get the rest of the world behind us,” he said. “So much of the world is a against our military actions in the Gulf … We need to need to step up our public and diplomatic relations around the world.”

James agreed.

“The United States has a problem because most of the world is opposed to the military action that is currently under way,” James said.

“[The United States] has to consider what this doing to our reputation around the world and at home,” he said. “We certainly don’t want our allies or enemies to think that we are not going in for the best intentions.”

James said one good thing may come out of this — the United States will learn from these events.

“If you go into a military situation, and you don’t have a good exit strategy of what you want to do when it is over, you end up with something like this,” he said.

“There is a historical lesson to be learned, and it should help us in future instances,” James said.

James believes we will not see closure of the situation in the Middle East any time soon.

“I think it will continue the way it has,” James said. “There are going to be occasional flurries of action, like the one we just saw, but we are not really going to get anywhere, and Saddam is not going anywhere.”