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In face of mounting pressures from both the United States and the international community, Iraq has agreed to unconditionally accept the resumption of United Nations weapons inspections, which were interrupted following the withdrawal of UN inspectors from Baghdad in 1998.
While the move was generally hailed by the international community, Washington rebuffed the effort as a "tactical step" that "will fail" and warned that the UN should not be fooled by Baghdad.
Washington also said the UN must act, vowing to continue to press the world body to come up with a fresh UN resolution on Iraq, hopefully with a deadline combined with tough conditions.
In a significant development on Wednesday, the Bush administration won commitment from the once skeptical US Congress to pass a stern resolution against Iraq before the mid-term elections in November.
The response from Washington seems cynical as it reneged on one of its major demands for the resumption of weapons inspections with an "unfettered" access at "any time and any place" in Iraq.
Analysts believe that this is because Washington's real object is regime change instead of weapons inspection.
Iraq appeared on the radar screen of the US-led anti-terrorist war as early as last November when US forces and their allies expelled the Taliban regime from Kabul.
Boosted by the victory on the battleground in Afghanistan, the Bush administration began to look for the next target in the second phase of its anti-terror war.
President George W. Bush personally joined the debate over a fresh war with Iraq in late November when he accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of seeking weapons of mass destruction and warned Baghdad of "serious consequences" if it continued to reject resumption of UN weapons inspections.
But the rhetoric was quickly shifted to a stated policy of regime change which warrants the removal of President Saddam from power.
To build up a case against Iraq, the Bush administration listed the country as part of the "axis of evil" and tried to link Baghdad with the al Qaida network, a terrorist group accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
While demonizing Baghdad, the administration also began to make preparations on political, diplomatic and military fronts and later produced the preemptive strike doctrine to pave the way for a showdown with Iraq.
The frequent war talks, however, not only confronted widespread international criticism but also triggered heated debate at home.
Latest opinion polls showed a substantial drop in support for a unilateral US military strike against Iraq as more and more US politicians and experts came out to urge the Bush administration to act more prudently.
Bowing to increasing domestic and international pressure, the Bush administration decided to take the issue to the United Nations first in a bid to rally international support.
The rationale for the shift, according to some administration officials, is that the US could persuade the UN Security Council to adopt a "very tough" resolution against Iraq, so tough Baghdad could only find out it was difficult to accept and had to reject it.
If the UN authorizes a strong response to the rejection accordingly, Washington will get the strong international support it badly needs. Otherwise, Washington will still get a pretext to go it alone.
In a recent interview with the CNN, Richard Holbrook, former US ambassador to the UN, said the US does not necessarily need UN authorization to go to war with Iraq, but support from allies such as Britain, Turkey and Kuwait are absolutely indispensable.
Taking the issue to the UN, whatever the outcome will help these countries to overcome domestic and international opposition to lend support to the US in a showdown with Iraq, he said.
The tactics could never be clearer when President Bush strongly indicated, in his speech at the UN General Assembly on September 12, that his administration will continue to contemplate unilateral military action to force regime change in Iraq -- regardless of what the UN decides, and regardless of what action the Iraqi government takes.
Obviously, all of the US performance at the UN is designed to circumvent the domestic and international opposition and to find a better pretext for both itself and its allies for an ultimate target: the removal of Saddam from power.
(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2002)
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