Just Like Monica

National Review ^ | Feb. 5, 2003 | Mark Steyn

[conservativecorner]

Powell speaks to the frivolous.

By Mark Steyn

few days ago, I said this thing was getting like Monica: by the time you're in Year Two, no smoking gun is ever quite smoking enough. It's perfectly obvious from Colin Powell's presentation what's going on. Ten minutes before the flatfoots show up, the bootleg liquor is whisked away, replaced by teacups and the gaming table gets dropped through the trapdoor and replaced by an ornamental fountain. If you think Saddam Hussein is a lovable rogue — as Mr. Chirac does — this is all part of a grand ongoing comedy, to which the French and Russians made their own exquisite contribution by proposing to strengthen the monitoring regime by doubling the number of inspectors, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. If the Powell evidence made anything plain, it's this: The idea of "monitoring" a dictator is ludicrous. Saddam is quite happy to participate for another decade or two in an eternal ongoing U.N. field study of dictatorship.

Resolution 1441, painstakingly negotiated by General Powell and French Foreign Minister de Villepin, was never a test of Saddam. It was a test of the U.N. The faxed-in boilerplate responses to the Powell presentation couldn't have been clearer.

France: "They raise questions which deserve further investigation…." China: "We support the continuation of inspections…." "Russia welcomes the continuation of dialogue…. We hope that this dialogue will be extremely concrete…. The Security Council may need to adopt a new resolution, and perhaps more than one…."

Four, five, nine, there's always room for one more. You got the feeling that if they could have dragged out their expressions of condolences regarding the space shuttle for the full seven minutes, they'd have been happy to do so.

This is serious business. The U.S. and British remarks were sober and credible. The French, Russian, and Chinese were frivolous. The most relevant observation was Powell's assertion of al Qaeda's presence in Iraq for the last eight months. If that's accurate, it's not a U.N. matter, it's a threat to America's national security. Which shouldn't be dependent on the whims of the French veto.

— Mark Steyn is a columnist for Britain's Daily Telegraph and Canada's National Post. His website is www.marksteyn.com. A collection of some of his post-9/11 columns, The Face of the Tiger has just been released and can be ordered here.

[Redleg Duke]

Works for me! :-)

[Travis McGee]

I hope it works out that way. Maybe the free world will get it right next time and make a new international organization only open to free and democrratic nations with free speech, property rights etc. But I doubt that will happen.

[Poohbah]

Maybe the free world will get it right next time and make a new international organization only open to free and democrratic nations with free speech, property rights etc. But I doubt that will happen.

Your idea sounds remarkably similar to a couple of proposals put forward by Reginald Brentnor and Robert Conquest. Brentnor suggested that, had the US and the UK simply made real adherence to a basic standard of human rights and free economics as the criteria for UN membership, the Cold War might have ended in 1953 with the death of Stalin, and the new Russian regime cleaning up their act in order to get in on the action.

Conquest has suggested that the US and the UK form a loose association as a counterweight to the EU, and to explicitly base that association on the two nation's common cultural heritage (shared concepts of law, property rights, economics, art, historiography, et cetera).

[MeekOneGOP]

[Xenalyte]

Oh, man, people like that make me want to bust 'em upside the head, then take the kid into a corner and explain that polite people do NOT yell and kick and run around in public.

But then, politeness isn't exactly a foremost value anymore.

[blackie]

"This is serious business. The U.S. and British remarks were sober and credible. The French, Russian, and Chinese were frivolous. The most relevant observation was Powell's assertion of al Qaeda's presence in Iraq for the last eight months. If that's accurate, it's not a U.N. matter, it's a threat to America's national security. Which shouldn't be dependent on the whims of the French veto."

That says it all, thanks John!

Be Well - Be Armed - Be Safe - Molon Labe!

[Allan]

Bump

[Cyber Liberty]

"Resolution 1441, painstakingly negotiated by General Powell and French Foreign Minister de Villepin, was never a test of Saddam. It was a test of the U.N. The faxed-in boilerplate responses to the Powell presentation couldn't have been clearer."

Yup. Mark nails it here. This whole UN fiasco was *not* a test of Saddam, it was a test of UN resolve, and the UN flunked. There was never any doubt in my feeble mind that we're goin' in, no matter what the fiddlebudgets in the Security Council want to do.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I saw some black haired witch....

That must be the one that I spotted as I walked through the room when my husband was switching channels. Before she ever opened her mouth I knew she was a liberal. She quickly proved me right.

I asked my husband how it was that I could spot her politics before she'd said a word. He said, "Because she's trying to look like a man!"

I don't think he's exactly right -- it's probably more because she was wearing no makeup -- but it's just about the same thing.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[AuntB]

Whoa....are we related? I'm sure I have the same folks in my family that you described! Dependant, spineless nations are no different than dependant, spineless relatives. There are days I and this old USA feel just the same. They'll use you and then turn on ya. We must learn to pick our friends better.:<)...unfortunately, you can't pick your relatives.LOL!

[AuntB]

Buy AMERICAN!!! There are many websites dedicated to USA made products.

[Balata]

bttt

[Intolerant in NJ]

...Auschwitz...It sure would if the killers were European or American and the victims were minorities...well, actually the perps were European - Germans - and lots of the victims minorities - Jews, gays, "gypsies" (some of the same groups hated by the extremist muslims, come to think of it). But I'd bet the more-peacable-than-thou brigade back then would have used some of the same rationalizations as now to escape facing the reality of war that eventually would have to be faced - "Germany never did anything to us, so why should we attack Germany?", "We have no proof of what they did - we have to negotiate and deliberate toward a congressional resolution before we act rashly", "After all, look at how badly Germany was treated after WWI - who can blame them for behaving as they are now?" etc.etc.etc......

[Mia T]

thx for the suggestion. I actually agree. Less is often more. ;)

[freedumb2003]

>>and she was an American! <<

AINO

[Howlin]

I like it! I'm stealing that.

[freedumb2003]

Have at it!

:)

[r9etb]

Yup. Mark nails it here. This whole UN fiasco was *not* a test of Saddam, it was a test of UN resolve, and the UN flunked. There was never any doubt in my feeble mind that we're goin' in, no matter what the fiddlebudgets in the Security Council want to do.

This it their "League of Nations" moment. And, ironically enough, France is once again playing a leading role.

The French Republic -- what a waste of beautiful real estate.

[wardaddy]

Pardon me....I should have specified racial minorities.