U.S. will get its Resolution for an invasion

It will not be because of the forensic detail of what promises to be a skimpy performance by Colin Powell. Nor will it be because George Bush has won over members by the force of his intellect and his command of his material.

It will be because the UN is a realistic place, when it gets to hard issues ? which tend to be the ones the U.S. defines as such.

Members know that serious might makes right.

They may roll their eyes in private at the President. But Powell's presentation offers them an excuse to avert their worst nightmare: unilateral American intervention with them marked as hostile neutrals at best.

They may haggle about the details and insist on forms of words about Iraq's territorial integrity and sovereignty. But in the end it is very likely they will succumb to the American pressure for a quick war with speedy vindication in the form of post-war confessions and revelations by Iraqi scientists and generals.