Diplomacy: His Lonely March

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For the allied war planners, the maneuverings in New York City are now a sideshow. "It's always been our position, whether it's one, two, three vetoes or however many there are--if they are unreasonable, then it is not going to stop us," says a British official. The military campaign will probably become the U.S.'s chief instrument of diplomacy. The Pentagon's plan is to launch a massive early blitz that would demoralize Saddam's forces and lead to a quick liberation with limited casualties; if that happens, the Administration believes, hostility to U.S. action will peter out. As it tries to line up votes for a last-chance U.N. resolution, the U.S. is already discussing the prospect of U.N. involvement in a post-Saddam Iraq. Given the enormity of the task of rebuilding that country, it makes sense to get started now. "The United States will come to the U.N. for reconstruction help," says a senior U.N. diplomat, "and they'll get it."

So, ready or not: the U.S. appears headed for Baghdad, with a coalition of the willing, or at least grudgingly willing, trailing behind. The signs that war is fast approaching are impossible to ignore. As U.S. troops in northern Kuwait readied for combat last week, U.N. monitors discovered several 82-ft.-wide gaps in the electric fence that runs along the border between Iraq and Kuwait. Workers say the Kuwaiti government hired them to cut 35 gaps in the barrier by March 15, big enough for tanks to roll through. --Reported by Massimo Calabresi and John F. Dickerson/Washington, Helen Gibson/London and Marguerite Michaels/U.N.