> question. Europeans like to say that friends can disagree and > remain friends. The U.S. view is quite different: Friends do not > disagree over matters of fundamental importance. The disagreement > over Iraq was not a disagreement over passing issues, but the > unwillingness of France, Russia and Germany to give the United > States the benefit of the doubt on a matter that Washington > regarded as a matter of fundamental national interest. From > Washington's point of view, if these countries could not > automatically support the United States over Iraq, what issue > would generate automatic support? And if there are no issues on > which support is automatic, then in what sense is there an > alliance? NATO was built on the assumption that an attack on one > is an attack on all -- automatically.
This is an interesting point. The Bush administration, and their supporters, like to talk about how the UN has been marginalized. The US demanded support to combat Saddam because of the immediate threat predicated on WMD, but now that we are finding no WMD one has to wonder who is really marginalized. In hindsight, it seems that the position of France, Germany, and Russia was correct; there was no evidence of immediate threat. So while the US likes to bark that the UN is useless, it appears that the Bush administration has undermined the US credibility, and I would suggest, may be marginalizing and isolating the US from being a world power in anything other than military power. It's curious that one of the arguments for the US going into Iraq was that the US shouldn't be isolationist, but the very act of going into Iraq seems to be isolating us from the world economy. -Kevin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
