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The United Nations Security Council, not George Bush, was responsible for determining Iraq constituted a threat to peace. The determination of what action to take rested with its fifteen members, including five countries which have veto power. The United Nations came into existence in response to WW I, the failure of the League of Nations, and WWII. Great Britain and the United States lead the way to re-establish the collective security begun with the Atlantic Charter, so they above all countries had an obligation to support proposed military action

The war began with the United Nations Security Council passing Resolution 678, which reaffirmed and recalled eleven prior resolutions concerning Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Resolution 678 did not order the coalition to simply expel Saddam’s forces from Kuwait but used a more expansive term for which precedence existed. The term” restore international peace and security in the area” used language the UN and our Congress understood from the Korean War that after the Inchon landing authorized the invasion of Iraq as it had then affirmed military operations above the 38th parallel to invade North Korea. The resolution language was accepted by all five permanent members of the Security Council, including Russia and the PRC, who could have promised a veto and demanded more restrictive language to only expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Therefore, at the margin those two countries mandated the invasion of Iraq when Hussain ignored his responsibilities under Resolutions 687 and 1441.