President Bush's national security advisor and his chief of staff say U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 is nothing for Iraq to accept or reject, but merely to acknowledge.

The Iraqis "don't have the right to accept or reject this resolution," National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said on ABC-TV's This Week With George Stephanopolous November 10. "They are to acknowledge that they intend to comply fully," she said.

"Saddam Hussein cannot say no. He will have to say yes," White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on NBC-TV's Meet the Press November 10. Rice added that the resolution "is a Chapter 7 action by the United Nations" in her appearance on Fox News Sunday With Tony Snow November 10. Chapter 7 is the section of the U.N. Charter that provides for the use of force to implement Security Council resolutions.

Both officials stressed that if Saddam Hussein refuses to cooperate with the United Nations, either before or during the proposed weapons inspection process, the facts would be immediately reported to the Security Council for it to consider "serious consequences." Both Rice and Card agreed that meant the use of military force to disarm Iraq.

"The president has made no secret of the fact that he intends to use force if the Iraqis cannot be brought into compliance in other ways," Rice told Snow.

"We are hoping that Saddam Hussein will do what is right and just say yes, disarm, completely comply with the U.N. Security Council resolutions," Card told NBC's Tim Russert. "And if he does that we won't have to go to war. But if we have to go to war, we will. And as the president said, we will go to war, we will win, and there will be no question about it," Card said.

In fact, Rice noted that the threat of force is what makes the newest resolution different. "If we are to do this peacefully, if Iraq is to finally change its attitude and disarm, it is only going to be because Saddam Hussein believes that he might be taken down," she told ABC's Stephanopolous.

Resolution 1441 provides a process to achieve Iraq's disarmament, Rice said on ABC, "but that process depends heavily on whether Iraq intends to cooperate." U.N. weapons inspectors "are not going to go 'hunting and pecking' all through a country the size of France, trying to prove that Saddam Hussein does or does not have weapons of mass destruction," she said.

"Let's be clear," Rice added. "This is a totalitarian regime. They know where everything is."

"I think that Saddam Hussein better pass this test," Card said. "And he knows what 'serious consequences' are, and we know what 'serious consequences' are."