You really ought to cheer up, put on a happy face!
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SHOTS ACROSS THE BOW - BLOG
Chalk another one up for Dubya!
The UN Security Council unanimously agreed to the US sponsored resolution on Iraq. In essence, the the US is in a 'can't lose' position. If the UN helps with Iraqi reconstruction, great; if they don't, they are shown to be ineffectual, irrelevant, and hypocritical. Once again, they've given President Bush what he wanted, something they had no intention of doing. Their underestimation of his acumen continues to cost them.
But there's another factor at work here, one that needs exploration. The UNSC has agreed to support the reconstruction of Iraq, without requiring a specific timetable, increased authority, or anything else pushed by France, Germany, and the rest.
Why?
In short, had they continued to balk, then they would have been demonstrating their increasing irrelevance.
Here's the thing; the unanimous passage of this resolution signals that things are going well in Iraq, much better than France or Germany thought possible. As long as they thought the US was stepping into another Viet Nam, their best strategy lay in sniping from the sidelines, allowing the US to flounder, digging itself in deeper, until at last we would have to crawl to the UN for help. By agreeing to the new resolution, they abandoned that strategy, and that has telegraphed their evaluation of the situation in Iraq. If it were a quagmire, as most of the press would have us believe, France and Germany would have at the very least abstained from the vote, hoping to add to the US troubles. Since they approved the measure, that signals that they know things are going well in Iraq, and that they are rapidly losing leverage. The only way for the UN to maintain any relevance now is to be seen as allied to the US efforts, rather than opposed.
Additional pressure was put on the Security Council by the Japanese, who agreed to donate just over $1 billion to the Iraqi reconstruction effort. By making their move when they did, Japan demonstrated to the UN just how dangerously close they were to becoming totally irrelevant. Just as importantly, they also demonstrated that the US has political and economic partners that do not answer to the EU, something that is probably keeping Chirac up late at night.
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