(2 of 5)
But inevitability is rarely the mother of enthusiasm. If Americans are looking forward to a war with Iraq, they are keeping their emotions well hidden. In the TIME/CNN poll, 77% said they think a war would make acts of terrorism in the U.S. more likely, and 63% said the prospect of war made them more fearful for the country. "No one wants to go to war," said Russ Alters, 60, in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, last week, expressing a sentiment that would have been just as common on the streets of Dusseldorf or Damascus. The Administration has always worried that public support for a war--especially one waged without backing from a broad international coalition--was soft. To gain maximum support, the Administration still needs to sell the case for action to two distinct constituencies--first, ordinary Americans, and second, the diplomats who gather in the Security Council. And that is why, when it wanted to make the case last week that Saddam is a danger to safety and security everywhere, it turned to the man Americans and the world trust more than any other: Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell, we sometimes forget, is a phenomenon, a chapter from tomorrow's history books walking right in front of us. It isn't just the unique resume that demands respect; it's also the presence and the personality--the unforced authenticity and effortless sense of command while he refers to himself as just "an old Army trooper"--that stills and fills a room. Ordinary Americans know that. "There's nobody better to represent us," said Sanford Licht, 72, in Sherman Oaks, Calif. "A military guy, a minority guy. He epitomizes what goes on in America." And Powell's colleagues are every bit as aware of his star wattage. "Who else?" said a senior White House official, when asked whether there had been any debate about the Administration's messenger to the U.N. last week.
Who else, indeed? In the TIME/CNN poll, 56% thought Bush was doing a good job handling Iraq, but 83% approved of Powell's performance as Secretary of State. The Secretary threw himself into the task. He spent hours rehearsing the speech, even rearranged the furniture in one office of the U.S. mission to the U.N. so that it resembled the Security Council chamber. He checked and rechecked the information he was given and more than once refused to put into the speech details that hard-liners on Iraq wanted there but that Powell felt the available intelligence did not support. "He was only going to do the stuff that he was personally confident of and comfortable with," said his old friend and former White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein.