A Usually Windy U.N., Calm Before the Storm

Washington Post ^ | March 17, 2003 | Paula Span

[wretchard]

A Usually Windy U.N., Calm Before the Storm

NEW YORK, March 16 – A few days ago, when the world's eyes still were focused on the United Nations, a jostling scrum of international media formed around any Security Council member who wafted past their encampment. The Chinese ambassador was engulfed, even if all he had to say was, "I have to consult with my government, but we are not for war."

...

But it's hard to ignore the artwork installed recently outside the council chambers, a gift from the African island nation of Mauritius. About 18 inches high, it's a gleaming, glass-encased sculpture of a dodo bird, graceless and extinct, meant to make an environmental statement, now portending something different.

[wretchard]

So it returns to the place where it began. New York. A few miles from the site of the WTC, a jury nerves itself to carry out its earlier judgement on Saddam Hussein, without success.

Half the world away, thousands of men are lying in the sand in the half-light of the moon, summoned to that spot by the events of beautiful fall morning. The trumpet is distant, but it calls.

[sonrise57]

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[MEG33]

Our troops await and at the optimum hour we will strike. I have no idea if it will be this week or March 31 ,but I pray more Iraqis have decided this is a battle for their freedom from saddam and will defect.May God bless our troops.