Geoff Metcalf
Monday, March 17, 2003

President Bush told the world in his television address “we don’t need permission” to attack Iraq. And we don’t … so why all the diplomatic pussyfooting?

The United States and Britain have reportedly been forced to delay their push for a United Nations resolution authorizing war against Iraq after France and Russia vowed to defeat it. Tony Blair stepped up to the plate. Go figure.

“Tony Blair prepared his party and country for war without further approval from the United Nations,” the London Times reported. Attaboy!

Blair said he would defy scores of Labor MPs and millions of voters as he basically blew off the idea that America could go it alone. Way to go, Tony! Badges? Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges …

Britain and America already had legal authority for attacking Iraq, Blair said. And he even went the extra mile by implying that if the U.N. could not bring itself to enforce its will, others would have to do so. That is a key point … and a major reality check for the Neville Chamberlain crowd.

The United Nations is a dysfunctional gaggle of regional special interests whose only consensus is that the richest, most powerful member of their club is bad.

According to Anthony Gregory of the Independent Institute [http://www.independent.org/
tii/news/030310Gregory.html], "The United Nations is no flawless organization, no paragon of truth, no exemplary model for national foreign policies," and he is spot on right.

"It is a coalition of governments – each with its own priorities and politically motivated agendas. It's hypocritical and foolish for those who once decried the UN to use its resolutions to justify war with Iraq – or for antiwar activists to rely on the UN to bring about peace and justice in a region they believe has suffered the worst of UN policy: mass starvation from sanctions.”

In other words, in less scholarly terms, the U.N. is as worthless as a bucket of spit.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan tried to intensify the pressure on Washington, warning that conflict would be illegitimate without a new resolution authorizing it. However, Annan, France, Germany and other would-be appeasers are between the rock and the hard place.

Annan claims that without the resolution, military action would be "seriously impaired" and not conform to the U.N. charter. Bullfeathers!

The terminally whiny French say they are going to veto the resolution in any case … maybe. Hey, that’s the French. Blair noted that it was illogical for France, having backed the original U.N. Resolution 1441, to veto its implementation. Illogical, yes … but VERY French. It also underscores the epic U.N. hypocrisy of denying its original resolution.

Most of the news accounts you read suggest that the obstreperous U.N. naysayers constitute some massive setback for the U.S. Not really. That is the glass being half empty. The half-full side of the equation is the cruel reality check that the ‘United Nothing’ is hypocritical, impotent and increasingly insignificant.

There ARE consequences to what we do and don’t do in life. Poker is not Baccarat and like it or not the guy with the most chips and best cards wins.

Annan is warning the U.S. not to launch a strike without U.N. approval. "The charter is very clear on circumstances under which force can be used," he said. "If the United States and others were to go outside the council and take military action, it would not be in conformity with the charter."

The reality is you can only count on the U.N. (and France) to be there when they need us. Well, guess what? WE don’t need them.

• The U.N. is incapable of leading anything or anyone.

• It is too petty, venial, frightened and recalcitrant to follow anyone or anything (including but limited to principles, justice, honor or strategic imperatives).

• So it should get out of the way. John Wayne once said, “If you won’t respect your elders, I’ll teach you to respect your betters.”

  Charles Krauthammer nailed it in his column "Call the Vote. Walk Away." [http://www.washingtonpost.com/
  wp-dyn/articles/A13017-2003Mar11.html]

  He wrote for the president to "Walk away from the U.N. Security Council. It will not authorize the coming war. You can stand on your head and it won't change the outcome. You can convert to Islam in a Parisian mosque and it won't prevent a French veto."

  The League of Nations failed to stop Mussolini from invading and conquering Ethiopia. It failed to stop Japan from invading and conquering Manchuria and a chunk of China.

  Once upon a time lots of Americans were whining, "Appease Hitler. He really isn’t such a bad guy. He just needs more room for his growing population."

  The U.N. fiddled and talked and talked as the Soviet Union carved up Germany, and invaded Poland and Yugoslavia, Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria along with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

  Over 37,000 American soldiers were killed in Korea, and over 1,000,000 South Korean soldiers and civilians were killed and the country was effectively destroyed. That’s just part of the U.N. resume.

  Thanks in part to the United Nothing we have sent our troops to Vietnam, Somalia, Herzegovina, Panama, Granada and, in the wake of Iraq invading Kuwait, the Gulf War.

  We don’t need U.N. permission and we should abandon the fiction that it really matters. By its own action of inaction the U.N. has revitalized the mantra of “Get out of the U.N. and get the U.N. out of New York.”

  Visit Geoff Metcalf's Web site at http://www.geoffmetcalf.com. He may be contacted at geoff@geoffmetcalf.com.

  Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
  Saddam Hussein/Iraq
  United Nations

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