"The community of free nations can show that it is strong and confident and determined to keep the peace." This is Bush speaking in Washington thursday, just after Colin Powell returned from New York and his mission to pressure the U.N. Security Council to approve offensive war.

But not to worry. Even if their strong-arm tactics fail, the junta says it's prepared to go to war with a coalition of "like-minded nations" [Reuter's phrase] without U.N. backing.

The Bush administration, facing a wary public at home about the prospect of war and uneasiness abroad, has support for war from Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic and most eastern European nations as well as Australia. [All are nations currently governed by right-wing parties, but this is something the media neglects to mention, perhaps because to do so would help puncture our balloon and show that this war is politics after all.]