HONOLULU -- Why diplomacy failed in Iraq remains a subject of intense debate. Even Baghdad's supporters could not argue that Iraq had fully complied with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which found Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime in material breach of numerous earlier resolutions and promised "serious consequences" if Iraq did not fully and immediately disarm.
Would giving the U.N. inspectors more time have made a difference, as France, Russia, China and others argued? We'll never know. The decision by the U.S.-led "coalition of the willing" to proceed without U.N. endorsement left that question for historians to ponder.
Many would argue that the debate had already become moot once France made it clear that it would veto any amendment implicitly authorizing the use of force against Iraq -- French President Jacques Chirac seemed more concerned about containing U.S. President George W. Bush (or American global leadership in general) than Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.