Giving the UN a Chance

Bush's challenge to the UN is to answer a question in much the same way a judge presents a question to a jury. Is Saddam Huesein in compliance with 1441? It is clear that Bush thinks not, and he thinks no one else can honestly answer the question other than no. By framing the debate on these terms, he avoids the question of whether more inspecters or more time will resolve the matter to the satisfaction of the French. The question then becomes will the French et.al. give an honest answer to the question.

The unfortunate aspect of this situation is that Saddam gets another couple of weeks to plan his attacks against the US and its forces. For a party on the defensive that is a valuable gift of time that Bush is making to help some of his allies. While coalitions have some strengths they also can be very costly in terms of the lives that are put in jeopardy because a course of action is taken to placate an ally. In World War II the war in Europe was unnecessarily prolonged at the cost of thousands of lives because supplies that would have been better used by Patton's Third Army, were instead given to British Gen. Montgomery who was plodding along while Patton was out flanking the Germans and poised to go into Germany. This delay in supplies to Patton gave the Germans time to regroup and establish defensive positions that the Americans had to fight through. It was a gift of time that was very costly in American lives.

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