GEORGE WILL WRITES:

It would be more difficult for the president to wage war against Iraq if the United Nations did not exist. But if the United Nations, having passed 1441, now refuses to authorize war, the United Nations will essentially cease to exist.

There is the outline of a satisfactory outcome: Saddam Hussein removed, the United Nations reduced.

The United Nations’ power — like that of France — grows mostly out the the United States’ unaccounted willingness to pretend to take it seriously. But that’s getting steadily harder with both.