(Link courtesy Mathew Gross)

U.S. Officials Say U.N. Future At Stake in Vote Bush Message Is That a War Is Inevitable, Diplomats Say As it launches an all-out lobbying campaign to gain United Nations approval, the Bush administration has begun to characterize the decision facing the Security Council not as whether there will be war against Iraq, but whether council members are willing to irrevocably destroy the world body's legitimacy by failing to follow the U.S. lead, senior U.S. and diplomatic sources said.

You hear that boys and girls? It is now the unofficial policy of the United States that the legitimacy of any international body is dependent solely on whether it follows the U.S. lead or not. If it dares to contradict us, then it is, by Bush definition, illegitimate. Amazing isn't? Not only does he claim legitimacy that he does not have and never will have, he also claims the authority to define what legitimacy means for the rest of the world. We really are just peons in the minds of these people.

In meetings yesterday with senior officials in Moscow, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton told the Russian government that "we're going ahead," whether the council agrees or not, a senior administration official said. "The council's unity is at stake here." A senior diplomat from another council member said his government had heard a similar message and was told not to anguish over whether to vote for war. "You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said U.S. officials told him. "That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not."

If this is indeed what the Bushies are doing then the other countries on the Security Council are obligated to vote against the resolution specifically in order to protect the integrity of the United Nations. If they cave then they will be essentially abdicating their role and allowing that the UN is nothing more than a rubber stamp for American adventurism. Bush needs to be taught that he cannot dictate to the world what will be done. And, if he tries, he should be soundly slapped. If they don't then they will be appeasing a dictator. The world awaits to see if the security council members will have spines more resiliant than those of the Democrats in congress after the 2000 election.