Richard Perle

About the Author: Richard Perk, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., served as assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. The following article was written on August 22, 1990, three weeks after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

In 1981, Israeli aircraft destroyed the Baghdad facility from which Saddam Hussein expected to obtain the plutonium for a nuclear weapon. The breathtaking accuracy of the Israeli air force was admired privately in defense ministries around the world. But most governments denounced the Israeli action.

Had Israel not sent its planes against the Osirak reactor, our world would be a different and far more dangerous one today. Saddam could have marched into Kuwait with the "try and stop me" swagger that would come from nuclear weapons added to his already formidable arsenal...