by Patrick J. Buchanan – September 23, 2002

With Russia, China, France and Saudi Arabia shifting to back a U.S. invasion, Saddam played his ace of trumps. U.N. inspectors, he told Kofi Annan, can come back in and inspect whatever they wish.

The White House was caught flat-footed. But the Russians seized on Saddam’s offer as ending the need for new U.N. resolutions. The Arab League, which had a hand in coaxing Saddam to cooperate, declared there was now no need for the U.N. to threaten war. Within hours, the momentum of the president’s U.N. address had dissipated and the coalition forming up behind a U.S. invasion had disassembled.