U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made the case for international action against Iraq at the United Nations Wednesday. In a calm and measured presentation, punctuated with displays of audio tapes, satellite photos and other intelligence information, Mr. Powell argued that Baghdad had committed a "material breach" of its obligations under U.N. resolutions and risked "serious consequences" for those actions -- diplomatic language for a military strike. It was a bravado performance, matched only by the inadequacy of the Iraqi response. The world must now decide whether the U.N. will rise to the challenge or risk the fate of the League of Nations.

Mr. Powell's appearance at the U.N. had been anticipated since U.S. President George W. Bush outlined his Iraq policy to the American people in his State of the Union address last week. U.S. officials tried to dampen expectations about the "proof" that Mr. Powell would provide. While some anticipated a replay of the dramatic confrontation between America's U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson and his Soviet counterpart during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Mr. Powell cautioned that he had no "smoking gun." Maybe not, but the evidence he did provide was striking.

Mr. Powell made several key points. He argued that Iraq continues efforts to procure and develop weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He demanded that Iraq account for the tons of chemical and biological weapons it declared it possessed in the past but has no record of destroying. He claimed that Baghdad has made systematic efforts to hinder U.N. and International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. Mr. Powell called it "a policy of evasion and deception that goes back 12 years, a policy set at the highest levels of the Iraqi regime."