WASHINGTON -- We wait and watch. Iraqi President Sadaam Hussein is cooperating. Or is he? He is destroying some missiles that United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix says are too powerful. But is that enough? U.S. President George W. Bush does not seem convinced. "Pure showmanship and more stalling," he calls it as he continues his relentless pressure on the Hussein.
Prime ministers and presidents have paraded through Washington to pledge their fealty to the U.S. cause. Bush recently spent a pleasant and profitable weekend at Camp David with Prime Minister Jose Maria Anzar of Spain, who promptly replaced British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the key promoter of the new United States-backed resolution in the U.N. Security Council.
Blair needed to spend a bit of time in London to sell his position to party leaders and constituents. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was traveling with the same game plan: Sell a second U.N. resolution in tough territory -- China, Japan and points east. China hasn't bought it.