Confronting Iraq

In his speech yesterday to the United Nations, President Bush said that Iraq is a threat the U.N. was born to confront.

Indeed, Iraq has ignored numerous U.N. resolutions and if there is no response, Saddam and the rest of the evil empires will get the message they will pay no price for violating the laws and morals of civilized people.

Naturally, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.N. tried to deflect attention from the president's speech, suggesting his threat of war is revenge for his father's failure, and that he wants Iraq's oil, and so on.

The President said, "We cannot stand by and do nothing while danger gathers. We must stand up for security and for the permanent rights and hopes of mankind.

If the U.N. or the United States do not act, the President said, and unless Saddam's weapons of mass destruction are destroyed, the lives of millions of people will be at risk and the U.N. "will be irrelevant."

My view is that the U.N. has been irrelevant for some time and the President is going through the motions so he won't be accused of not trying enough to avoid war. So, whom do you believe? The Iraqis or President Bush? I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.