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AMMAN, Jordan _ Just as the United States sends more troops to Kuwait and considers its military options against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Arab governments and political theorists are moving in the exact opposite direction: They want peace with Iraq.
Even Kuwaiti analysts and the Crown Prince of Jordan, whose government in the last year played host to a CIA-funded group whose aim was to assassinate Saddam Hussein, are calling on the United States to normalize relations with its poster boy of evil.
The political shifts here are no less than stunning: The Middle East is not just a far different place than it was during the Gulf War. It's a far different place than it was two weeks ago.
And beyond that is a fear of swifter, more unpredictable change, if America decides to strike again.
In interviews in Kuwait City, Cairo, Egypt, and Amman last week, the call for ``rehabilitating'' Saddam Hussein, or gradually accepting him back into the league of nations, may seem an alien thought from afar.
But here it's on the lips of policymakers. It stems from cold political calculus.
Hussein hasn't been this strong since before he invaded Kuwait in August 1990. He exercises a semblance of control over northern Iraq again; the opposition is in tatters, and he executed many of his supposed ``assassins.''