We’ll Get Our UN Resolution — Or Else

by John Hawkins | October 17, 2002 12:25 pm

We’ll Get Our UN Resolution — Or Else: The Bush administration is still trying to get France, Russia, and China to agree to a UN Resolution[1] that will meet our needs but so far we’re being stymied…

“France, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council with veto power, has been leading resistance to a U.N. draft resolution which would give Washington the right to attack Iraq for the slightest failure to meet U.N. requirements.

Paris, with strong support among Security Council members and elsewhere, does not want the 15-member council to authorize an attack unless arms inspectors report back that Iraq has not complied with U.N. demands.”

Bush already has a congressional resolution authorizing force and enough nations in the region cooperating with us to guarantee that we can successfully hit Iraq with or without UN approval. While a UN resolution would help us get better press, more cooperation, and more nations sending token forces to help in Iraq, we don’t NEED to have it. In fact, a UN resolution is just window dressing at this point.

On the other hand, Russia and France (they’re the real hold-ups on the UN security council) have a lot to lose by not giving us what we want. Iraq owes Russia billions that it will never see unless it goes along with us. Both nations have companies with contracts to develop Iraqi oil fields that are worth tens of billions of dollars. Unless they go along with us I’m sure the new Iraqi government will decide that those contracts are null & void. Moreover, France, Russia, and The UN itself risk becoming largely irrelevant if the world’s lone super power defies them and invades Iraq without UN approval. Since both France and Russia have gained a great deal of power and prestige from being the UN Security Council, having the UN lose credibility would be devastating for them.

I tend to suspect that France and Russia are talking tough now because they know that we’re not going to invade before the elections. So they may think that they have a little more time to dicker. But time is running out and both Russia and France are negotiating from a position of extreme weakness. Either they give us a UN Resolution we can live with (which I expect them to do) or they’ll be left behind. Either way, we’ll be rolling into Iraq by the end of February at the latest and we won’t sign on to any UN resolution that prevents that from happening.