Groundhog Day in Baghdad

Iraq has -- surprise, surprise -- failed to convince arms inspector Richard Butler that it is destroying its nasty weapons. Baghdad, meanwhile, is ratcheting up the rhetoric, warning that its "patience" is at an end and demanding an immediate end to sanctions. "Iraq is trying to raise pressure on the U.N. to counter the impact of Butler's report," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "They thought that Kofi Annan's intervention had allowed them to sidestep UNSCOM, but now they find themselves in the same position as before."

While a new bout of confrontation may be looming, Dowell believes it could play out differently. "The real question, now, is what anybody is going to do about the weapons issue," says Dowell. "There's little support for any kind of military action against Iraq." But the Security Council isn't likely to lift sanctions either. Back to square one, in other words.