NYTimes -- A Question of Timing: Go Slow or Fast on Iraq?

While the United States is trying to hurry things along in the debate in the United Nations about Iraq, other members of the Security Council are becoming more determined to take their time.

A majority of Council nations remain unconvinced that President Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons that pose an imminent threat. The chief inspectors said last week that they had found no smoking gun, and the United States has not disclosed any spectacular evidence either to the inspectors or to the Council.

Meanwhile, the nuclear defiance of North Korea is creating a serious problem of public perception for all Council nations.

The Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has insisted on provoking the United States by summarily expelling United Nations atomic inspectors, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and moving to restart his nuclear reactors.

By comparison, Mr. Hussein looks to many like a paragon of disarmament cooperation.

On Jan. 27, Mr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei will outline their program of work in Iraq for the next 60 days.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the other neo-conservatives are pushing Bush but other countries are headed in the wrong direction.