NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - We've reached a moment of decision for the president. It was four months ago that the Security Council approved U.N. Resolution 1441 that demanded the disarmament of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Even though it was four months ago, that resolution called upon Iraq to disarm immediately, not in days or weeks, nor certainly months, or face grave consequences.

Grave consequences are now at hand, and those consequences are directly and solely the responsibility of Saddam Hussein, and to a lesser degree the governments of France and Germany, which in their pathetic political posturing, have given Saddam Hussein every reason to believe he will not be held accountable, that he would not have to disarm or go into exile.

And if such a hope still exists in his mind tonight, Messrs Chirac and Schroeder, and yes, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan must bear the burden of their inconstancy and wavering.

Senator Tom Daschle said Monday that he was saddened by events, and criticized President Bush saying the president had "failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war."

This is the same Senator Daschle who said on the floor of the United States Senate five months ago that "it is important for America to speak with one voice at this critical moment." That on the day Congress approved the Joint Resolution authorized the president to use military force against Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein.

Senator Daschle has every reason to be saddened, but by his own deeds, not those of the president.

President Bush has been clear and constant throughout, and for that deserves great credit, not criticism from the inconsistent.