...the Decisions...

...10/10/02: Congress approved the use of America's military might against Iraq, reinforcing President Bush's insistence that Saddam Hussein's government had no other option but to disarm. The days of Iraq acting as an outlaw state are coming to an end, Bush said...

...after days of solemn debate, both the House and Senate passed and sent to the White House a resolution authorizing the president to use military force, if necessary, to compel Iraq to get rid of its biological and chemical weapons and disband its nuclear weapons program...

...the president, who has stressed that he has made no decision on launching a military strike against Baghdad, prevailed despite lingering Democratic concerns about the risks of a pre-emptive, unilateral strike on Iraq...

...the Congress has spoken clearly to the international community and the United Nations Security Council, Bush said Friday in a statement. Saddam Hussein and his outlaw regime pose a grave threat to the region, the world and the United States. Inaction is not an option, disarmament is a must...

...it was a major national security policy victory for Bush, and it occurred less than a month before midterm elections that will decide control of the House and Senate...

...the House approved the resolution by a strong 296-133 margin Thursday. The Senate vote, coming early Friday, was 77-23...

...the resolution emphasizes the need to work with the United Nations and exhaust diplomatic measures before resorting to force but allows the president to act with or without the United Nations. There was a sense that war was inevitable...

...giving peace a chance only gives Saddam Hussein more time to prepare for war - on his terms, at a time of his choosing, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz...

...Bush, speaking to reporters after the House vote, said it sends a clear message to the Iraqi regime: It must disarm and comply with all U.N. resolutions or it will be forced to comply...

...Bush is pressing the U.N. Security Council to adopt a new resolution requiring Iraq to submit to unconditional inspections and disarm or face military retaliation...

...State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said talks are progressing at the Security Council on wording of a new resolution that all five-veto holding permanent members can support. The United States and Britain continue to encounter resistance from France, Russia and China...

...10/12/02: President Bush is considering plans for a postwar Iraq that could keep U.S. troops in the Middle Eastern country long after President Saddam Hussein's departure...

...one model being reviewed is the post-World War II occupation of Japan by an American-led military government, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday. Another, he said in a National Public Radio interview, is the postwar occupation of Germany...

...10/12/02: Powell said no single model has been selected, but American troops would be bound to remain in Iraq if the United States fights a war to depose Saddam until you could put in place a better system...

...White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the United States will not cut and run if Bush considers it necessary to disarm Iraq by force under authority granted by Congress. Administration policy is that Saddam must be removed from office...

...the administration is working to find ways to help achieve stability for Iraq and for the region, Fleischer said. And we are considering a variety of ways to do so with our international partners, with the possibility of the United Nations being involved as well...

...several administration officials said Bush's top aides, including national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, would oppose a military government. Among their concerns: Occupation might inflame Iraqis along with Muslims in other countries....

...but as Bush moves closer to war if Iraq refuses to disarm, his bid for backing from the United Nations is encountering stiff resistance, especially from France...

...in a move to placate France, U.S. diplomats offered to remove a threat to use all means necessary to force Iraq to disarm. France still objected because the resolution would threaten consequences if Iraq remained defiant...

...Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Sergey Lavrov, said his government was not yielding in its opposition to a green light for military intervention in Iraq...

...U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, The member states want a two-stage approach: Send in the inspectors, and if they get into trouble, if it fails, come back and we will pass the second resolution...

...under France's strategy, that second resolution might include using force against Iraq...

...10/13/02: Iraqi Islamic leaders appealed to the Muslim world Saturday to come to their aid if the U.S. attacks...

...take the word of Iraq, which already has lost so much flesh and blood to this country: If no one stops it, it will destroy the whole world! Iraq's Popular Islamic Conference said in a fatwa, or religious edict, signed by 500 clerics of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority...

...10/27/02: the two-day Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum yielded the United States a show of unity against North Korea's nuclear weapons program, a fresh round of promises to combat terrorism and a valuable opportunity to lobby 21 Asian leaders on Iraq...

...but Bush's toughest challenges went unmet. Many Asian leaders still reject Bush's zero-tolerance approach to Iraq, and administration officials grimly acknowledged that a strong U.N. resolution to force Saddam Hussein to disarm may elude them this week...

...South Korea and Japan still oppose Bush's isolation policy for North Korea...

...U.S. officials still have reason to question the commitment of Muslim-dominated Pacific Rim nations to the war against terrorism...

...and APEC, created by the first Bush administration to liberalize trade, became a forum for Asian leaders to accuse the second Bush White House of protectionist practices such as agricultural subsidies....

...after more than an hour of talks, Jiang handed Bush a diplomatic success in the campaign to rid North Korea of its recently disclosed nuclear weapons program...

We Chinese always hold the position that the Korean Peninsula should be nuclear weapon-free, Jiang said...but the Chinese leader failed to deliver a stern condemnation of North Korea's actions...US officials said they expect to endure weeks of negotiations before Beijing might be more forceful...

...it didn't get much better for Bush at APEC...in the summit-ending statement, the leaders called on North Korea to visibly honor its commitment to give up nuclear weapons programs...but the statement did not directly condemn North Korea for trying to build a nuclear bomb...
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said that declaration, and another made Saturday by the leaders of South Korea and Japan, were forceful. In diplomatic language, it doesn't get much stronger than what they did, he told reporters aboard Air Force One after the summit...

...on Saturday, after meeting with Bush, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called upon North Korea to dismantle this program in a prompt and verifiable manner...but they, like Jiang, stopped short of condemning North Korea's actions...

...that appeared to be less than what Bush had wanted...on the trip to Mexico, a senior administration official said the United States expected South Korea and Japan to condemn Pyongyang. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the first step in Bush's strategy was to isolate North Korea...

...Koizumi, who had been seeking to normalize relations with North Korea before the crisis, did warn that normalization talks would not be concluded until the standoff was resolved. US officials called that a victory for Bush because Japan is the largest potential source of trade and investment for Pyongyang...

...Bush won no public expression of support of sanctions or other economic pressures to punish North Korea. It is not clear whether he wants North Korea to suffer any consequences - aides say a decision on sanctions is in the works - but fellow Republicans are urging him to be tough.

...former President Jimmy Carter, in a New York Times opinion article Sunday, chided the Bush for not following through on diplomacy. Some progress has been made between the North Koreans and both Japan and South Korea in recent months, but similar efforts by President Clinton terminated with his administration, who negotiated the 1994 deal North Korea nullified this month...

...on Iraq, Bush pressed his case with for a U.N. resolution to disarm Saddam, with force if necessary. But Mexico still sides with France and Russia on a watered-down two-step approach...

...his patience running thin with Fox and other reluctant allies, Bush pledged anew to mobilize a coalition against the Iraqi leader - without the United Nations, if necessary...

...the U.S. strategy is to convince allies that that Bush will confront Saddam one way or another. That forces them to choose between backing the United States or swallowing a dose of irrelevancy as Bush proceeds without them...

...the president underscored the choice later...If the United Nations won't act, if Saddam Hussein will not act, if he continues to defy the world, the United States - in the name of peace - will lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein,'' ...

...10/30/02: as U.N. deliberations on Iraq dragged on, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared Wednesday the United States would not permit itself to be handcuffed by the world organization...at no time will the United States foreclose its ability to act in its interest in accordance with its constitutional obligation to protect the nation and protect the people...10/31/02: the U.S. demand for speedy U.N. action on Iraq has run into strong opposition from Russia, France & China, who want Washington to change a draft resolution and eliminate any license for the United States to attack Baghdad on its own...the three veto-holding Security Council members want to ensure that Iraq is given a chance to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors before any military action is authorized - and they're now waiting to see what the United States and Britain are going to do to address their concerns...

...11/3/02: Saudi Arabia will not allow bases on its soil to be used for an attack on Iraq even if the United Nations authorizes military action, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in an interview broadcast...