pRIMrose
03-12-2003, 06:46 AM
Charles Krauthammer
March 12, 2003
Townhall.com
WASHINGTON--Walk away, Mr. President. Walk away from the U.N. Security Council. It will not authorize the coming war. You can stand on your head and it won't change the outcome. You can convert to Islam in a Parisian mosque and it won't prevent a French veto.
The French are bent not just on opposing your policy, but on destroying it--and the coalition you built around it. When they send their foreign minister to tour the three African countries on the Security Council in order to turn them against the United States, you know that this is a country with resolve--more than our side is showing today. And that is a losing proposition for us.
The reason you were able to build support at home and rally the world to at least pretend to care about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is that you showed implacable resolve to disarm Iraq one way or the other. Your wobbles at the U.N. today--postponing the vote, renegotiating the terms--are undermining the entire enterprise.
I understand that the wobble is not yours, but a secondary, sympathetic wobble to Tony Blair's. Blair is courageous but opposed by a large part of his party and in need of some kind of diplomatic cover.
Mr. President, the window has closed. Diplomatically, we are today back where we were before Sept. 12, with America and its ``coalition of the willing." That's enough. And in any case that is all you are going to get. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/ck20030312.shtml)
Bush would do a lot better listening to Krauthammer than some of his current advisors. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif
March 12, 2003
Townhall.com
WASHINGTON--Walk away, Mr. President. Walk away from the U.N. Security Council. It will not authorize the coming war. You can stand on your head and it won't change the outcome. You can convert to Islam in a Parisian mosque and it won't prevent a French veto.
The French are bent not just on opposing your policy, but on destroying it--and the coalition you built around it. When they send their foreign minister to tour the three African countries on the Security Council in order to turn them against the United States, you know that this is a country with resolve--more than our side is showing today. And that is a losing proposition for us.
The reason you were able to build support at home and rally the world to at least pretend to care about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is that you showed implacable resolve to disarm Iraq one way or the other. Your wobbles at the U.N. today--postponing the vote, renegotiating the terms--are undermining the entire enterprise.
I understand that the wobble is not yours, but a secondary, sympathetic wobble to Tony Blair's. Blair is courageous but opposed by a large part of his party and in need of some kind of diplomatic cover.
Mr. President, the window has closed. Diplomatically, we are today back where we were before Sept. 12, with America and its ``coalition of the willing." That's enough. And in any case that is all you are going to get. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/ck20030312.shtml)
Bush would do a lot better listening to Krauthammer than some of his current advisors. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif