NEW YORK (CNN) - The president today set forth a straightforward choice for the United Nations: Either enforce its resolutions that Iraq has defied for more than a decade, or be irrelevant. While the president didn't say so directly, he made it clear that the world community would not be facing this crisis, had the United Nations taken its responsibilities seriously, and acted immediately upon Iraq's first violation 11 years ago.

The president bore with dignity and patience the introductory remarks of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said no UN member nation large or small should act alone on major global issues as a matter of political convenience. It seems to me that the United Nations is the institution guilty of acting out of political convenience, failing as it has to enforce its own resolutions upon Iraq and bearing the assault on its legitimacy by Iraq without response for more than a decade. Annan did not say he was speaking about the United States, but his meaning was clear, and the insult palpable. The Secretary-General must speak always to the broadest constituencies, but that doesn't mean he has to address the lowest common denominator.

I would prefer that the Secretary-General perhaps apologize to the member nations for the U.N. failure to abide by its own charter, specifically Article 1... requiring it to prevent and remove threats to the peace. Had the United Nations taken that charge seriously, there would be no issue of unilateralism.