Bush scores major victory in foreign policy initiative

President Bush went to this week's meeting of the 19 NATO leaders in Prague, the Czech Republic, a relatively lonely man. Only Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, had given Bush his unequivocal, public support for disarming Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. The British and American leaders let it be known that war with Iraq was inevitable if military dictator Saddam Hussein refused to give U.N. weapons inspectors free access to all locations where biological, chemical or nuclear arms are being produced or stored.
But after talking to NATO leaders and reiterating that the war on global terrorism is his administration's top priority, Bush was rewarded with a four-paragraph statement from the growing military alliance that could be characterized as a major foreign policy victory.
The NATO leaders demanded that Iraq "fully and immediately" comply with a U.N. resolution to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction and threatened "serious consequences" for defiance.
"NATO allies stand united in their commitment to take effective action to assist and support the efforts of the U.N. to ensure full and immediate compliance by Iraq, without conditions or restrictions," the statement said.
The message to Saddam is clear: The U.S. and Britain are not alone in their effort to make sure that Iraq no longer is a threat to its neighbors or to world peace.
Military action
Although the statement does not specifically endorse military action, there should be no doubt that several NATO countries will step forward if and when the president seeks help in launching a military strike against Iraq.
Iraq has an early December deadline to acknowledge it has weapons of mass destruction and to agree to destroy them. Refusal to do so will be viewed by the international community as one more example of Saddam's intransigence.
While foreign policy experts will undoubtedly have various explanations for why Bush's war on terrorism and his targeting of Iraq were embraced by NATO, the wave of public approval in America that the president has been riding cannot be ignored.
The unanimous Security Council adoption of the Iraq resolution formulated by the United States came on the heels of the Nov. 5 general election in which Bush led the Republican Party to a takeover of the U.S. Senate and a solidifying of the GOP majority in the House.
World leaders recognize that on the issue of terrorism, a majority of the American people have given Bush their unquestioned support. But until the NATO meeting, it appeared that the U.S. and Britain would alone have to bear the burden of war.
Today, however, they have strong allies. Saddam Hussein ignores such a coalition at his peril.