Win, Place, Show

OpinionJournal gets a rare trifecta today.

First, the lede editorial looks at how the world could be worse if Bush backs down from toppling Saddam. No excerpts; just read it.

Next up, Robert Bartley argues that Resolution 1441 isn’t just Saddam’s last chance, it’s also the last chance for the UN:

So now the United Nations has a final opportunity to prove itself a serious place–or at least for democracies such as Germany and France to show that their words mean something when they vote for Security Council Resolutions. They can’t expect to be serious players in the world if they leave President Bush and his “coalition of the willing” to take enforcement of Resolution 1441 into their own hands.

Finally, Peggy Noonan offers SOTU advice to Bush:

Four months ago a friend who had recently met with the president on other business reported to me that in conversation the president had said that he has been having some trouble sleeping, and that when he awakes in the morning the first thing he often thinks is: I wonder if this is the day Saddam will do it.

“Do what exactly?” I asked my friend. He told me he understood the president to be saying that he wonders if this will be the day Saddam launches a terror attack here, on American soil.

I was surprised. We know of the arguments that Saddam is a supporter and encourager of America’s terrorist enemies. We know the information that has been made available. But the president has not to my knowledge said in public that he fears Saddam himself will hit us hard on the ground in America, and soon.

Lots of us wonder the same thing. And, like Peggy, many of us hope Bush says something about it on Tuesday.