On The Road to Baghdad

By PAUL GRAY/

After saying "We cannot be on the sidelines at a time when world peace is in jeopardy," ex-Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrived in Iraq last week. Daniel Ortega? Come to think of it, a lot of world players have been jumping off the bench and showing up at midfield Baghdad. Among those

Jesse Jackson

His exhaustively publicized journey liberated 47 U.S. hostages and helped fill four editions of his syndicated TV talk show.

Kurt Waldheim

The former U.N. Secretary-General, damaged by allegations about his Nazi past, + showed up early in the gulf crisis and got 70 hostages out, thereby helping his campaign to be re-elected President of Austria in 1992.

Edward Heath

The onetime British Prime Minister managed to get 40 of his fellow nationals out of Iraq but was criticized back home for engaging in wildcat diplomacy.

Ramsey Clark

The ex-Attorney General and antiwar activist went to Baghdad to campaign for peace and to urge George Bush to "say no to war."

Cat Stevens

The British-born pop star, who now calls himself Yusuf Islam, has been allowed to set up a "peace camp" for British Muslims behind the Iraqi lines and has appeared on Iraqi television.

With reporting by David E. Thigpen