Le Sabot Post-Moderne

Multilateral Fantasies

I just read a fascinating article about German media and the Iraqi elections. The German press was actually more negative in its election coverage than the Arab media -- 80% negative reportage.

Reading things like this, I'm struck again by the cretinism of people like John Kerry. How naive must one be to mumble about multilateralism and "international cooperation" as a solution to the situation in Iraq when faced with a reality such as this? At least when using "multilateral" as a shorthand for France, Germany and Russia.

This sort of silliness can be seen also in revisionist histories of the lead-up to the Iraq War. "If we had only involved the UN" is one of the favorite criticisms of Bush.

Lost in these critiques is how Security Council members France and Russia were going to magically forget their huge oil contracts with Iraq. Or how UN, French and Russian politicians were going to forget the Oil for Food bribes they'd taken. Or how Bush was supposed to convince the media of Europe to report with anything like objectivity. France was never going to allow a war resolution to pass.

Once the reconstruction began, Kerry kept promising to involve the UN, and faulting Bush for not doing so. Dry that one out and you could make homemade pyrotechnics. The idea that the UN was anxiously sitting around hoping to jump in is ridiculous beyond description, and Kerry knew it. He was banking on the average listener being obtuse enough not to. The critics who fault Bush for not involving the UN are generally doing the same thing.

By all means oppose the war, but do so with some modicum of intellectual honesty.

Hat tip: My Sandmen

Posted by Discoshaman at février 2, 2005 12:28 AM | TrackBack