WSJ: The Multilateral Moment - The non-'cowboys' aren't stopping nuclear proliferation.

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 27, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

...The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany struck their deal with Iran on Wednesday in Geneva. Yesterday, also in Geneva, the World Trade Organization agreed to open membership talks with Iran. Unlike the 22 other times this issue has come up, the U.S. did not object. Agreeing to let Iran negotiate to join the WTO was part of the U.S. promise to the European three last March in return for their agreement that Iran can't be allowed to enrich uranium. At the very least, this action ought to put to rest the caricatures of the Bush Administration as "cowboys" determined to go to war with Iran.

The U.S. has also been the very model of a multilateralist on North Korea, steadfast in pursuing six-party talks with Pyongyang. Yet this effort too has yielded precious few results. China... refuses... to influence North Korea; and Seoul... keeps writing checks....

The result is that North Korea has recently tested a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, appears to be gearing up to produce weapons-grade plutonium and has indicated it may be preparing to test a nuclear device....

We review all this to make the point that if there ever was a moment for the world's believers in multilateralism to come forward, this is it. The self-proclaimed supporters of collective security around the globe have made it clear that they don't want the U.S. to act on its own to stop nuclear proliferation, so how about the world's non-cowboys taking the reins and riding to the rescue?...

If the multilateral failure on Iran and North Korea continues, no one should complain if the U.S. feels obliged to act on its own to protect Americans from the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue governments.

[OESY]

At West Point in 2002, President Bush said "We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign nonproliferation treaties, and then systematically break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long." That was three years ago.