Via Andrew Sullivan:


washingtonpost.com: U.S. Officials Say U.N. Future At Stake in Vote - Bush Message Is That a War Is Inevitable, Diplomats Say

As it launches an all-out lobbying campaign to gain United Nations approval, the Bush administration has begun to characterize the decision facing the Security Council not as whether there will be war against Iraq, but whether council members are willing to irrevocably destroy the world body's legitimacy by failing to follow the U.S. lead, senior U.S. and diplomatic sources said.


In meetings yesterday with senior officials in Moscow, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton told the Russian government that "we're going ahead," whether the council agrees or not, a senior administration official said. "The council's unity is at stake here."


A senior diplomat from another council member said his government had heard a similar message and was told not to anguish over whether to vote for war.


"You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said U.S. officials told him. "That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not."


President Bush has continued to say he has not yet decided whether to go to war. But the message being conveyed in high-level contacts with other council governments is that a military attack on Iraq is inevitable, these officials and diplomats said. What they must determine, U.S. officials are telling these governments, is if their insistence that U.N. weapons inspections be given more time is worth the destruction of council credibility at a time of serious world upheaval.[...]

Scary, but it's damn nice to see an American administration that sticks to its path. I don't know what this all is going to mean for Bush's re-election campaign (and it's nice to see that he and Blair don't seem to give one damn about that) - a lot of that has to do with how the actual battle goes, but one thing is for sure: If Bush were to deviate or in any way back down now, he will guarantee that he will not be re-elected next time out. He must continue this path of resolve. The people who were against him for this wouldn't be for him no matter what, and the rest of us are expecting good, strong, goal-oriented leadership.