■ Secretary of State Powell left something out that might even win over the Left. In meetings with Iraqi children, cigar-loving Saddam routinely exposes them to a weapon of mass destruction—second-hand smoke.
■ Late January and early February saw a shift in domestic and international opinion toward President Bush’s Iraq policy. In his exhaustive presentation before the U.N. on Feb. 5, Powell made an irrefutable case that Saddam Hussein has been defying the U.N. by hiding prohibited weapons systems and otherwise working to thwart inspections. Powell also revealed a terrorist cell in Baghdad that has been operating under the leadership of Abu Musab Zarqawi. And he exploded the limp conventional wisdom that the secular Saddam couldn’t possibly cooperate with bin Laden’s Islamic radicals. (Their hatred of the West unites them.) The secretary of state was following up on a forceful argument for confronting Saddam by Bush himself in his State of the Union address, and a damning report to the U.N. by Hans Blix. The head inspector has done what he can to avert war, but he nevertheless presented evidence that strengthened the case for it. Meanwhile, eight European leaders published a letter in the Wall Street Journal declaring that they stand with Bush against the Iraqi regime and urging the U.N. Security Council to “face up to its responsibilities.” Suddenly it was France and Germany that were looking isolated. Polls show that support for war with Iraq has crept upward in the U.S. Most Americans support it even in the absence of a U.N. sign-off— and even if the war will last long and casualties will be high. The president would be obligated to defang Iraq even if the polls went the other way, of course. But as Bush’s critics have long said, it’s good to have allies.
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