The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1441 compelling Iraq to submit to UNMOVIC weapons inspections. Iraq is given seven days to agree to the resolution. The French and Russian proponents of the two-step process, as well as the one-step US delegation, claimed victory. The wording of the resolution was negotiated over two months, and each side was able to derive what they liked from the resulting language. Most significantly, the United States was able to retain the "material breach" language it wanted. The New York Times was good enough to provide the subsequent remarks from United States Ambassador John Negroponte.

After a meeting with NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, President Bush pledged to give Iraq "one more chance," and pursue disarmament through the UN. The administration was quick to make clear that if the UN would not produce a tough and persuasive resolution, the US would lead its own coalition to disarm Iraq.

The Senate approved the House resolution allowing President Bush to attack Iraq, 77 to 23, without amendement. The House version is H.J. Res. 114, and the Senate version is S.J. Res. 45. The Clerk of the House has made available the roll call for H.J. Res. 114. The Senate roll call is also available.

President Bush addressed the nation last night to lay out his policy for Iraq. No new evidence was presented -- some compared it to "closing arguments" that a prosecutor would make at the end of a trial. The three major networks did not carry the speech, indicating that the White House did not request the coverage. That did not stop the White House from being somewhat disappointed over the lack of coverage. Read more for the major points.

UNMOVIC head Hans Blix visited Washington to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. They told him to "not take no for an answer," and demand to inspect whatever he liked, whenever he liked, in Iraq. They also told him to wait until the quickly-evolving UN Security Council resolution was passed before he began inspections. Blix has said that despite the talks with Iraq in Vienna, there were "loose ends" that a new Security Council resolution would resolve. The Security Council has basically agreed that new inspection rules are necessary, but there is a strong disagreement over whether the rules should be enforced by threat of force -- France, China and Russia would all like to leave the military option for a second resolution to be enacted only if Iraq proves uncooperative.

The Central Intelligence Agency has refused to provide documents on its role in Iraq to the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Committee wants to know what the CIA is doing in Iraq, and how it can be coordinated with military and political efforts. No reason was given for the refusal, but many speculate that the report would have highlighted the infighting between the Pentagon and the CIA over their activity in Iraq -- and could possibly be construed as second-guessing the President. This comes at a time when the CIA already in hot water with Congress for bungling September 11th.

The very difficult question of how to keep Iraq stable after overthrowing Saddam Hussein is still unanswered. Most agree that the eventual goal is a federal democracy, and everyone agrees that a foreign army will have to occupy Iraq for many years before the country can become stable again.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was asked about the Congressional Budget Office's estimate that a war in Iraq would cost $9 billion dollars a month. Fleischer agreed that the non-partisan CBO's estimate was a lot of money, and said it is more "than the cost of a one-way ticket." After a somewhat dramatic pause, he added: "The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less." When asked to expand on that, Fleischer repeatedly said that "regime change is welcome in whatever form it takes." He then cooled things off with "I'm not stating Administration policy, I'm stating the obvious."