Saturday March 8, 2003
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 8, 2003
The U.S. and the U.N.
In pushing forward America’s agenda, Bush turned up the heat on the United Nations Thursday by insisting that diplomacy is “in its final phase.”
Translation: The U.S. is getting tired of UN Security Council waffling which is frustrating America’s plans and making the world’s only superpower appear to be a self-indulgent bully. The U.S. position was clarified yesterday by a resolution tabled by its closest friend, Britain, which would give Saddam Hussein 10 days to comply with UN inspections or face war.
It’s a political resolution designed to give the anti-war nations a last chance to fall in step with the U.S.
Should the resolution fail, and it certainly will, the United States will still go to war, insisting that it doesn’t need anyone’s permission to look after its own security interests.
In the face of this certainty, the temptation is to write off the United Nations as an organization whose credibility and value has crumbled under the weight of U.S. foreign policy. (Hamilton Spectaor Editorial)