Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Australia, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and a number of other countries supported us in Iraq. So you are wrong to say that no other major power went along with us, or that it was entirely go it alone.
Everyone, including the French, took seriously that Saddam was a threat, the only disagreement was over how to handle it. So, again, you are wrong in saying that we invaded in the "absence of a threat".
The French, by announcing their intention to veto the resolution that would have authorized us to use force, preempted the vote in the Security Council. Thus, you are wrong that the UN "did not reject the the US", in the sense that we were willing to take a final vote, and the French made it irrelevant.
Even Hans Blix has conceded that the only reason that Saddam cooperated even as much as he did, which was not great, was the pressure Washington was putting on him. As usual, we were expected to do the heavy lifting, that is, provide money, men, and materiel to enforce containment, without having more of a say about how our resources were used.
The UN, and a couple of our principal allies, were entirely at fault for going the extra mile to thwart us, even though they relied upon us in the first place to secure the situation......... |
