By the late 1990s, however, neo-conservatives were arguing that dual containment was not enough and that regime change in Iraq was essential.

The only coalition member with a policy of "dual containment" seems to be the United States.

We have also developed a strategy of dual containment of Iraq and Iran.

But it has to do two things to give reality to the policy it calls "dual containment."

I think the impulse behind dual containment is correct.

Iran, like Iraq, was to have been isolated by severe sanctions in a policy described by Administration officials as "dual containment."

But some senior Administration officials have begun to distance themselves from the policy - or at least the slogan, saying they never felt comfortable with "dual containment."

The failure of "dual containment" has now been revealed.

Both would in future be opposed, as part of a policy he called 'dual containment'.

And how ironic it would be if dual containment ended up by pushing Iran and Iraq, two enduring enemies, into each other 's arms.