I'll give the problem first, specs second.

When I try to issue the command:
iptables -P input DENY

I get the following error:
iptables: Bad built-in chain name

if I change it to:
iptables -P INPUT DENY

The error changes to:
iptables:  Bad policy name

It seems that if I change DENY to DROP, it accepts the rule.  It seems that
the only TARGETS that I can apply are DROP and ACCEPT.  I'm not sure exactly
what is going wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:
platform RH7.2
Iptables RPM installed:  iptables-1.2.4-2
newly compiled 2.4.9-31 kernel
configuration I used under "networking options" when I compiled the kernel:

Packet socket: mmapped IO  [y]
Kernel/User netlink socket     [y]
Routing messages                   [y]
Netlink device emulation         [y]
Network Packet filtering         [y]
Network packet filtering debugging   [n]
Socket filtering                        [y]
Unix domain sockets               [y]
TCP/IP networking                 [y]
TUX                                       <m>
External CGI module               [y]
extended TUX logging format   [n]
debug TUX                              [n]
IP: multicastings                        [n]
IP: advanced Router                 [y]
IP: policy routing                       [y]
IP: use netfilter MARK value as routing key   [y]
IP: fast network address translation     [y]
IP: equal cost mulitpath             [y]
IP: use TOS value as routing key    [y]
IP: verbose route monitoring      [y]
IP: large routing tables               [y]
IP: kernel level autoconfiguration   [n]
IP: tunneling                              <m>
IP: GRE tunnels over IP             <m>
IP: arp daemon support              [n]
IP: TCP explicit congestion notification support   [n]
IP: TCP syncookie support         [y]
The IPv6 protocol                       [n]
ATM                                           [n]
The IPX protocol                        [n]
Appletalk protocol support          [n]
DECnet support                           [n]
802.1d Ethernet Bridging              [n]
CCITT X.25 Packet Layer           [n]
LAPB Data Link Driver                [n]
802.2 LLC                                  [n]
Frame Diverter                            [n]
Acorn Econet/AUN protocols      [n]
WAN router                                [n]
Fast switching                              [n]
Forwarding between high speed interfaces  [n]

***  Netfilter Configuration Sub-Menu options  ***
Connection tracking                    <m>
FTP protocol support                  <m>
IRC protocol support                  <m>
Userspace queueing via NETLINK   <m>
IP tables support                          <m>
limit match support                        <m>
MAC address match support         <m>
netfilter MARK match support        <m>
Multiple port match support             <m>
TOS match support                        <m>
tcpmss match support                      <m>
Connection state match support         <m>
Unclean match support                     <m>
Owner match support                        <m>
Packet filtering                                   <m>
REJECT target support                      <m>
MIRROR target support                     <m>
Full NAT                                            <m>
MASQUERADE target support         <m>
REDIRECT target support                  <m>
Packet mangling                                  <m>
TOS target support                             <m>
MARK target support                          <m>
LOG target support                              <m>
TCPMSS target support                        <m>
ipchains (2.2-style) support                    [n]
ipfwadm (2.0-style) support                    [n]

*****  IP: Virtual Server Configuration  ********
virtual server support                              [n]

******  QoS and/or fair queueing  *******
QoS and/or fair queueing                        [y]
CBQ packet scheduler                            <m>
CSZ packet scheduler                            <m>
The simplest PRIO pseudoschedular        <m>
RED queue                                             <m>
SFQ queue                                              <m>
TEQL queue                                            <m>
TBF queue                                                <m>
GRED queue                                            <m>
Diffserv    field marker                                <m>
Ingress Qdisc                                            <m>
QoS support                                               [y]
Rate estimator                                             [y]
Packet classifier  API                                   [y]
TC index classifier                                       <m>
Routing table based classifier                       <m>
Firewall based classifier                               <m>
U32 classifier                                               <m>
Special RSVP classifier                                <m>
Special RSVP classifier                                <m>
Traffic policing                                             [n]