One of Bush's arguments against Iraq is that they have made the UN irrelevant through not following the resolutions passed against them.

However Iraq is not the only country to do so. Israel has an incredible list of resolutions passes against them.
http://www.mideastfacts.com/resolutions.html

Also, the United States has been the sole veto in many resolutions concerning Israel.
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/UN/usvetoes.html

Add to that, we have North Korea throwing out weapons inspectors and basically threatening to bury the world in nuclear winter, and we are treating them with more patience then Iraq, who so far has yet to be proven to have a single wmd, or any concrete links to terrorism.

From the humnitarian viewpoint, there are plenty of countries out there with worse records than Iraq, like North Korea. In an earlier thread, AndyW quoted John Kiesling saying how we are unraveling our diplomatic foundation in the world. Through dubious foreign policy we are destroying our sympathy factor we got after 9/11.

Any opinions?

__________________
"If your gonna buy the angel s**t, you might as well go for the zombie package as well."
-George Carlin

Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war

The British newspaer "The Observer" (http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story...905936,00.html) revealed that the American Sercet Service NSA is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.

Read the memo


To: [Recipients withheld]
From: FRANK KOZA [???] Chief of Staff (Regional Targets)
CIV/NSA
Sent on Jan 31 2003 0:16
Subject: Reflections of Iraq Debate/Votes at UN-RT Actions + Potential for Related Contributions
Importance: HIGH
Top Secret//COMINT//XI

All,

As you've likely heard by now, the Agency is mounting a surge particularly directed at the UN Security Council (UNSC) members (minus US and GBR of course) for insights as to how to membership is reacting to the on-going debate RE: Iraq, plans to vote on any related resolutions, what related policies/ negotiating positions they may be considering, alliances/ dependencies, etc - the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to US goals or to head off surprises. In RT, that means a QRC surge effort to revive/ create efforts against UNSC members Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea, as well as extra focus on Pakistan UN matters.

We've also asked ALL RT topi's to emphasize and make sure they pay attention to existing non-UNSC member UN-related and domestic comms for anything useful related to the UNSC deliberations/ debates/ votes. We have a lot of special UN-related diplomatic coverage (various UN delegations) from countries not sitting on the UNSC right now that could contribute related perspectives/ insights/ whatever. We recognize that we can't afford to ignore this possible source.

We'd appreciate your support in getting the word to your analysts who might have similar, more in-direct access to valuable information from accesses in your product lines. I suspect that you'll be hearing more along these lines in formal channels - especially as this effort will probably peak (at least for this specific focus) in the middle of next week, following the SecState's presentation to the UNSC.

Thanks for your help"

That's how you make yourself friends. The UNSC members will love to hear that their phonecalls and mail is spied by the U.S.

If there would be a world wide contest on screwing up ALL symphathy and support the U.S. ever had, the current U.S. Admin would win it without any doubt.

Cheers,

__________________
"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
(President Merkin Muffley in "Dr. Strangelove")

I couln't agree more Andy.

Seems to me that after 9-11 the US had a huge amount of support and sympathy (which they deserved 100%). But now there isn't 100% support for their attack on Iraq.
I remember watching Regis and Kelly (don't ask) and they held up a paper and on the front cover was a picture taken inside the UN and where France and Germany's delegates were supposed to be there were two weasels. This coming only a year and a bit after the attacks brought world wide grief and support for America.
It's kind of like: we'll be your friends and respect you....but if you don't agree with us, you might as well be an enemy.

IL DUCE

__________________
"Tolerance has never brought civil war; intolerance has covered the earth with carnage" Voltaire
"War is the fruit of man's depravity; it is a convulsive and violent sickness of the body politic.." Diderot

Too true Il Duce. Although I make the occasional French joke, whats been happening lately with all this anti-French and German sentiment is way too far. I respect the French, Germans, and Russians for standing up to us. Hell I agree with them.

Have you heard French fry sales are down?

__________________
"If your gonna buy the angel s**t, you might as well go for the zombie package as well."
-George Carlin

I'm seeing a lot more people openly talking about the ridiculousness of all this. The "war" doesn't have nearly the public support that the gvmnt and media suggest.
Israel, of course, is the most destabilizing element in the Mid-east. It's amazing that we haven't heard a peep out of them concerning this whole Iraq affair. They're the strongest force in the area (including Europe,) and they have nothing to say about Saddam Hussein?