France & Russia Don't Learn Too Well

I guess that the first go around in the UN Security Council wasn't quite educational enough to Paris and Moscow about the true importance of the UNSC. Not content to have been humiliated the first time, they are making noises that they might try again.

They're not catching this. We are already running Iraq. We have gone back to the UN, not to give us legitimacy, but to give the UN some semblance of it. We're already in Iraq; they're not. Any bone we throw the UN is strictly out of our own generosity.

But, as usual, the French aren't happy with any solution that doesn't require the Iraqis to drink nothing but French wine and to wear berets instead of burqas (oh yeah, and every male child must be named either Jacques or Jon-Pierre).

The Russians claim that the proposal raises questions and is unclear. Maybe they need to spend more time paying attention to the American media and public.

The Germans, the ones with the most to lose for their lunacy leading up to the war, are taking the same line as everyone else: it's a good starting point for negotiations and solutions.

When will people see just how hard we are working to ensure that the UN has some sort of legitimacy? And when will they see how obtuse the UN really is that they can keep blowing every opportunity we give them to be relevant?

What we really need to do is to declare the sanctions lifted, the Oil-for-Food program ended, and then tell the UN here is exactly what you can do to help - if you want to. Why Bush and Powell keep going back to the UN is beyond me. The UN has proven that it should be no more than a consultative body. It should not be making decisions, especially when human lives are involved.