If reports are to be believed, President Bush is going to make the call on a war with Iraq in the next few days, perhaps as soon as tonight.
Sources are indicating that President Bush is drafting an address that will give Saddam Hussein 72 hours to disarm his regime before the United States initiates military action. If Saddam Hussein does not comply, the United States will unleash a military firestorm that will cripple the Iraqi military machine in a matter of hours. This war will likely see the use of munitions that will utterly eliminate Saddam Hussein’s command and control systems while sparing as many civilian lives as is humanely possible.
Signs are that China, France, and Russia will veto a UN resolution authorizing force against the Hussein regime. After that, the likely backlash from the United States and Great Britain could very well spell the end of the United Nations as a world body.
Things are moving, and quickly. It now appears that the actions of the last few weeks are reaching their logical end. While I wish war were truly avoidable, it appears that Saddam Hussein will not back down. While I wish the UN could survive to be something greater, it appears that the self-interest of a few will make that organization go the way of the League of Nations. While I wish our troops could be home with their families, they have to face down this threat.
Whatever happens in the next few days will be moments that will decide the fate of our world. Let’s all just hope that the decisions that are made are wise.
In your comments, you let slip out some of the items on the conservative wish list. In this case, hope that the UN falls apart in response to America’s cowboy ethic dividing the world. Having destroyed the UN, American conservatives perceive greater ability to flex their muscle and be on greater footing in world diplomacy opposed to the comparatively equal footing that the UN provides. The only kinds of global treaties the US enjoys participating in are the kind that make it easier for manufacturers to move to third-world countries, which is one of many discouraging trends of the past couple decades. And then you have the nerve to speak of the “self-interest” of UN nations opposing war?
When the US can’t even effectively bribe its way towards an international coalition for this war, it’s a good indication that our “it’s not us, it’s the rest of the world who’s wrong” approach might be the one working in self-interest.
I think it is absolutely clear that France, Germany, and Russia aren’t acting in the interest of world peace, and most certainly not in the interest of the Iraqi people.
They have all invested heavily in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, despite the UN sanctions. They would all benefit from the lucrative contracts they signed with Hussein’s regime if there was no war.
This isn’t about lofty principles on the side of some valiant opposition. This is about a group of countries who want to make sure they get their money back. They want to be the power that counterbalances the US, despite the fact that they have no conception of how the international system really works.
The UN should not be a body to stand idly by while a country creates ever deadlier weapons and presents a growing danger to the rest of the world. If the UN wants to stick its head in the sand and place business interests above world peace, fine. However, that means that they’ve no right to complain when the US walks out on them – as they probably should have a long time ago.
It’s just that sort of arrogance that will deem your “liberate the world with American ideals” dogma fall on deaf ears by people who view it as modern-day colonialism. THis war will almost certainly antagonize our former allies and further antagonize our political enemies. Telling the rest of the world you don’t need them is not the way to bring people to your side of an issue except in the conservative fairy tale world.
The rest of the world, as it is so plainly put, isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, if we are speaking of being able to take action when the time calls for it. Telling the rest of the world they are not need isn’t supposed to mysteriously make them see the light. It is to do what it is doing, to tell them that they are not needed. They UN needs to take a stand once and for all against Iraq and, to put it bluntly let the hammer of justice fall, all over the heads of the Iraqi leadership.
Speaking of the US trying to control the UN, isn’t that just what the French are doing with the UN and EU? hhhmmm… I think so. And the Russians? well lets just all remember that the bulk of the illegal Iraqi weapons habe a nic red star painted on them.