Bush gets his wish- U.N. demands that Iraq disarms

WASHINGTON -- It took eight weeks of arm-twisting and some concessions, but President Bush got what he wanted -- a showdown with Saddam Hussein and the threat of war to strip Iraq of its weapons.

With a U.N. Security Council resolution in his pocket and the American military moving into position around the Persian Gulf, Bush made clear Friday that he is in no mood to overlook stalling or sleight of hand: "Any Iraqi noncompliance is serious," he declared.

Iraq must forfeit its weapons of mass destruction and all future designs on them, or else face "serious consequences." That was how the Security Council put it.

Bush, prevailing at last over balky allies, gave the threat a more superlative accent: "severest consequences."

War.

Successful navigation

Bush took to the Rose Garden after a unanimous Security Council "yea" vote that remained in doubt right up until the final minutes, when U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, approaching the Security Council chamber, took a cell phone call from the Syrians saying they were on board.

The administration had successfully navigated the treacherous road from Bush's Sept. 12 demand that the United Nations deliver him a resolution with real teeth. France, Russia and even Mexico had to be won over with wording changes like substituting "and" for "or," "secure" for "restore."

The haggling, which one senior administration official called "an excruciatingly difficult task," took longer than the increasingly frustrated White House had expected.

But in the end, a team led by Secretary of State Colin Powell -- hawkish Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were conspicuously sidelined -- finessed the French into giving up on a two-stage resolution and turned Russia's inclination to abstain into outright affirmation.

The key then, said a U.S. official involved in the diplomacy, was backroom assurances that Bush would not grab the resolution and run straight into war.

'Homicidal, not suicidal'

The key now is patience while the weapons inspectors do their work. On Thursday, Powell suggested a final showdown could be months away.

"The inspectors need to go in, set up their equipment, their cars, their this, their that. Now there is a process," said Judith Kipper, a Mideast expert with the Council on Foreign Relations.

War is not inevitable, she said. "Saddam Hussein is certainly homicidal, not suicidal."

But Bush and his advisers intentionally sent mixed signals on how much time they will give Saddam and how much "discussion" they will indulge within the United Nations when -- and if -- Saddam violates the latest U.N. demands, as has been his pattern for 11 years and 16 previous Security Council resolutions.

Iraq, the president said Friday, will surrender its chance at voluntary compliance with "any act of delay or defiance." And the United States will brook no "lapse into unproductive debates over whether specific instances of Iraqi noncompliance are serious," Bush said.

One senior administration official who later briefed reporters at the White House talked of needing to see "a pattern of noncompliance" and said, "The United States is not poised, looking for the first comma out of place." But alongside him, another senior official spoke of "a zero-tolerance view" toward any Iraqi missteps and no "prolonged discussion" of them by the Security Council.

The bottom line, said the first official, is, "The president has not lost any of his authority at some point to say, 'You know, I've got to act. Who wants to act with us?"'

Syria's surprise affirmative vote could bring other Arab nations along, said Richard W. Murphy, a former assistant secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to Syria and Saudi Arabia in the Reagan administration.

"They will wring their hands still, but Syria's vote will help others in the Middle East" take an unpopular position behind the United States, said Murphy.

Powell has already asked the Arab League, meeting this weekend, to produce some sign of support.

'Heavy in the air'

Bush's father, also advised by Cheney and Rumsfeld in their earlier incarnations, led the country successfully through the Persian Gulf War but stopped short of ousting Saddam. Many conservative Republicans, including members of the current president's inner circle, believe in hindsight that it was a mistake to let Saddam off the hook.

"None of them will say his father was wrong, but that's heavy in the air," said Murphy, who now is also with the Council on Foreign Relations.