LET THE HAMMER DROP
Tue Jan 28, 4:22 AM ET
Tonight, perhaps more intently than ever before, the eyes of the world will be on George W. Bush.
Tonight the president delivers his annual message to the nation - the State of the Union Address. But this year only this question truly matters:
Will it be war?
Yesterday, a wondrous event occurred: Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), often viewed as the Bush administration's principal dove, commented with unprecedented harshness on Iraq's "empty claims, empty declarations and empty gestures" in response to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441.
This, after U.N. inspections chief Hans Blix told an open meeting of the Security Council that "Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it."
Coming from Blix and his colleagues - people who are clearly straining not to justify an American-led war - this was a damning pronouncement.
To fortify his point that Iraq has offered cooperation on "access" but not on "substance," Blix explained that the 12,000-page weapons declaration delivered by the Iraqis on Dec. 7 failed to answer key questions concerning, among other things, the whereabouts of deadly VX nerve gas that Iraq weaponized back in 1990, growth material for biological warfare agents and some 6,500 poison-gas munitions.
Blix added that the 12 empty chemical warheads discovered last week "could be the tip of the iceberg," and that Iraq has engaged in missile development and testing that it is forbidden by U.N. resolution.
Perhaps more to the point, Blix made it clear beyond reasonable doubt that Iraq simply refuses to cooperate in any substantive way with inspectors - in itself a violation of the relevant resolutions.
Then, underscoring the obvious, Powell said flatly that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) "continues to defy the will of the United Nations (news - web sites)."
With simplicity and clarity, Powell listed the ways that Iraq has tried to frustrate the efforts of the inspectors.
But the most valuable part of his statement reminded the world that the issue now "is not how much more time the inspectors need to search in the dark. It is how much more time Iraq should be given to turn on the lights and come clean."
This is a remarkable transformation for the secretary - at least in his public persona. It now sounds as if even he is now resigned to military action.
Even so, the administration's true position with regard to a second Security Council resolution - or the start of a campaign against Iraq - remains unclear.
Given what Blix said yesterday, what Powell underscored and what a common-sense take on everything that has happened in Iraq in the past few months confirms, Iraq clearly is in material breach of its obligations.
Thus the United States is entirely justified in moving without further hesitation.
So, again, the world will be waiting for President Bush (news - web sites) to make his position clear tonight.
We hope there is no ambiguity in the president's message.
If he has further evidence of Saddam's noncompliance, tonight would be the time to present it.
He needs to confirm what Powell's dove-to-hawk transformation suggests - that there is nothing productive to be gained in granting Saddam yet another stay of execution.
The case against him is airtight.
Military preparations seem all but complete.
The time to drop the hammer has arrived.
Your move, Mr. President.
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