EDITORIAL : LOCK AND LOAD; THE ONLY REAL SOLUTION IN IRAQ IS A FINAL SOLUTION FOR REMOVING SADDAM.

WHEN the bombing stops in Iraq, then what?

What's President Clinton's long-range policy to deal with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, assuming that the strike fails to finally end the dictator's reign of power and terror?

Those are vital, important and legitimate questions to be debated and weighed in Congress.

But can the American people trust that a highly partisan and emotionally out-of-control Congress can weigh with due diligence a profound policy that will have serious ramifications throughout the world?

Impeachment aside, it appears that Saddam will be in office long after Bill Clinton, Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston are gone.

And Americans must be reconciled with the fact that U.S. troops will be based in the Persian Gulf for years to come, including periodic strikes to ``contain'' Saddam and his capacity to make weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam's ability to thwart the world and outlast his enemies is uncanny.

He survived a Republican president.

It appears he will survive a Democratic president.

All the while, Saddam has continued to stoke the fires of fear in a region ripe for a full-blown conflagration at any time.

Despite a massive invasion of his country less than a decade ago, he survived and lived to build his weapons of mass destruction for another day.

He has defied concerted worldwide condemnation.

He has ignored repeated ultimatums by the United Nations and resisted any meaningful inspection of U.N. teams.

It is obvious, then, after all these years that the only thing that will stop Saddam is a coup to remove him from office or an all-out assault to take him out.

Clinton said as much when he announced the latest military action Wednesday to contain Saddam and prevent him from getting out of control.

But no serious opposition exists in Iraq to overthrow him and his party.

The only way, then, to ultimately contain Saddam is to kill him, and as we saw when Republican President Bush was in office, that is an almost impossible order to give.

The bottom line is this: Saddam may be around for the long haul. And Americans must pay the price for years to come of having two administrations that have been unable to articulate and execute clear goals on ending his reign of terror.

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