Why Don't We Learn?

Why do we keep insisting on going back to the UN time after time after time in regards to Iraq? The Security Council has proven itself to be inhabited primarily by a bunch of self-serving countries who have lost sight of the goal of "collective security." We performed the job that the Council shrank back from, so why are we asking for their approval on the reconstruction of Iraq?

Russia, China and France, the three Soviet style powers, are all crying that we need to make serious concessions in order to get a unanimous vote on our reconstruction plan. It's my belief that we shouldn't give them much input, if any, but under no circumstances should we give them any real say in what happens.

They didn't earn the right to criticize us. The only deaths that they suffered during the war were suffered in the fight to save Saddam. Rather than standing up for freedom, justice and safety, they stood up for money, contracts and a repressive tyrant. They proved themselves to be supporters of all that is evil and wrong in the world.

And we want to give them a voice in determining the reconstruction of Iraq?

At least the Russians were honest about their position on Iraq:

Fedotov said Moscow's objective is to "bring to a minimum our economic losses and political losses from this resolution."

Russian companies have $4 billion in approved contracts to supply goods for the U.N. oil-for-food humanitarian program, which had been designed to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Iraqis under the embargo. The program would be phased out over four months under the resolution.

Russia "proceeds from the assumption that all approved contracts must be fulfilled or compensated in an appropriate way," Fedotov said.

So for the Russians, it's all about the money. At least we know where they're coming from. The French, on the other hand, are acting more suspiciously:

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris is also pushing for changes in the resolution, including a larger U.N. role in Iraq's reconstruction. "We are proposing a number of modifications, of amendments, that will make it most effective," he said in an interview with France Inter radio.

What could the French possibly have to offer to make our proposal more effective? Are they going to insist on greater wine imports for Iraq? Or maybe an Ivory Coast type of security arrangement? Maybe they will hold up Algeria as an example of a success in French diplomacy/colonization/liberation.

If we have the 9 votes and this is really important to us, then we need to put it to a vote and get it over with. Call them. If they veto the resolution, let them explain to the world why they felt a need to make the Iraqi people suffer more.

And let them explain it while we implement the plan anyways.