MORE U.N. DANCING AROUND ISSUE OF IRAQ BOMBS

President Clinton, we are told again and again, is constantly looking to define his legacy for history, a legacy. We can suggest what now appears clear to be another key part of the Clinton legacy: A nuclear-armed Iraq.

A recent vote within the United Nations Security Council illustrates the point. With four countries abstaining, the Security Council ended a year-long deadlock and voted to send weapons inspectors back to Iraq and to consider suspending sanctions if Baghdad cooperates. The Security Council has been struggling with the question of how to determine what Iraq must do to show it is cooperating with inspectors. Baghdad has indicated it would reject the resolution because it didn't immediately lift the sanctions.

The resolution establishes a new inspection agency for Iraq called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. The International Atomic Energy Agency remains in charge of monitoring Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

Over the last five years or so, Saddam Hussein has seemed to best President Clinton and the U.N. inspectors at every turn. The bankruptcy of the Clinton policy was laid bare when Scott Ritter, a respected veteran of the U.N. inspection team, resigned in protest against the continual interference and open undermining conducted by the Clinton administration, and especially by Secretary of State Albright.

Defenders of the weapons-inspection process can say whatever they want. But where rogue states such as Iraq are concerned, no nonproliferation program has ever been as effective as the incredibly bold, pre-emptive strike carried off by the Israeli air force back in 1981. The Israeli government gave the order and sent its jets screaming off on that unforgettable errand. In a matter of minutes the Iraqi reactor was a pile of smoldering rubble, and Saddam's nuclear program was set back indefinitely. It is the Israelis, not the United Nations, for whom American and allied soldiers could give thanks that they didn't face a nuclear-armed Iraq eight years ago during Desert Storm.

A serious policy for dealing with the incredible danger of an Iraq armed with nuclear weapons will, like so much else, have to wait for a new administration. That day can't come too soon.