Charles Krauthammer is a "plain dealer". I like that about him. Here, he says what he thinks Mr. Bush needs to hear this Wednesday morning. An excerpt:
The Gulf War ended in a cease-fire, whose terms everybody agrees Saddam has violated. You could very well have gone to war under the original Security Council resolutions of 1991 and been justified. I understand why you did not. There is a large segment of American opinion that swoons at the words ``United Nations'' and ``international community.'' That the international community is a fiction and the U.N. a farce hardly matters. People believe in them. It was for them that you went to the U.N. on Sept. 12, 2002.Posted by dan at March 12, 2003 01:13 AMIf you must have a second resolution, it should consist of a single sentence: ``The Security Council finds Iraq in violation of Resolution 1441, which demanded `full and immediate compliance by Iraq without conditions or restrictions.'''
The resolution should be a statement not of policy but of fact. The fact is undeniable. You invite the French to cast what will be seen around the world as the most cynical veto in the history of the council, which is saying a lot. They may cast it. They are French. But then they--not you--will have to do the explaining for perpetrating such an obvious lie.