Shortly after a new UN resolution was proposed that would give Iraq yet another opportunity — by 17 March — to show “full, unconditional, immediate, and active cooperation with disarmament obligations, the French foreign minister Villepin rejected it:
France, which has Security Council veto power, rejected the ultimatum minutes after Straw spoke. Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said: “We will not accept a resolution that will lead to war. We would not accept any ultimatum.”
We will not accept a resolution that will lead to war. That would seem to settle any need for further discussion, then. After all, iraq has only complied to the token extent it has thus far because of the growing and credible threat of war. Iraq did not invite “inspectors” in out of the goodness of their hearts. It was the build-up of troops, threatening to do their own “inspection” that forced matters.
If France will not approve of any resolution “that will lead to war,” why should Saddam Hussein cooperate any further?
Or, rather, why should the US wait any longer for France?
The intent is to have a vote on this proposal next Tuesday.
SDB suggests that this is precisely the point of the UN resolution — to force a vote up or down, so that countries can live with the consequences. That is perhaps a less comfortable outcome from a legalistic standpoint, but a better one for dealing with the results of this particular world conflict.
One place I disagree with him on is regarding a US withdrawal, temporary or permanent, from the UN. I think it’s too early for that, and unless we’re certain that the organization has been defanged, it’s too dangerous to let it lurch along on its own without a US veto. The Soviet Union learned that when it wasn’t around to block UN action on the Korean War.
As much as I think that the UN would be seriously damaged by a pull-out of US money and military support, I would still hate for us to suddenly find ourselves confronted by UN troops somewhere. The principles would remain the same as in the current conflict, but I’m not ready to give others that overt of a symbol.