With the debate on how and why to defeat Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein boiling like the summer sun over Baghdad, we discovered these Web sites full of details on the confrontation.

www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/iraq.htm

The Federation of American Scientists hosts a decade of research on battle plans against Iraq, status of Iraqi weapons programs, and even the current weather in Baghdad (it’s been a sunny 110-degree week).

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/etc/translation1.html

“Our father, indeed, Saddam, is our father …” So goes a music video in praise of Iraq’s totalitarian leader. This page is part of a PBS Web site titled “The Survival of Saddam.”

http://cagle.slate.msn.com/saddam

Slate, the online magazine, keeps an archive of political cartoons about Hussein. The cartoons date back to the Clinton years, and they show the frustration over the long effort to contain the Iraqi leader.

www.iraqfoundation.org

A private group, begun by Iraqi expatriates, hopes to foster democracy and human rights in Iraq. An archive of documents from 1990 and 1991 on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait details Hussein’s orders for the destruction of Kuwaiti oil fields, looting of the small nation, and control of the populace by keeping “a hand on the trigger.”

www.uruklink.net/iraqnews/eindex.htm

The government-run news service of Iraq sports English texts of Hussein’s latest speeches.