When Truth Tried to Stop War

[stevenleser]

38. That argument doesnt work for several reasons

1. A defacto bombing campaign never ended since the Gulf war. That was nothing new. It had fits and starts for the better part of the 11 year intermission between the wars.

2. The UN Security Council Resolution vote on 1441 was unanimous 15-0 with zero abstensions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1441 If you are going to indict the Democrats, you have to indict Russia, China, Syria, Mexico, France, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Ireland, Mauritus, Norway and Singapore who all voted in favor of 1441 which basically said that "Iraq was in material breach of the ceasefire terms presented under the terms of Resolution 687. Iraq's breaches related not only to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), but also the known construction of prohibited types of missiles, the purchase and import of prohibited armaments" etc."

If you know the history of UN Security Council votes and how infrequently certain of the permanent members vote in favor of US efforts, how much they generally distrust us, not to mention how some of the non-permanent members who were on the council at the time generally regard our efforts, like Syria for instance. Speaking of Syria, the Syrian ambassador to the UN had this to say about Syria's 'Yes' vote on 1441:

“ Syria voted in favour of the resolution, having received reassurances from its sponsors, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and from France and Russia through high-level contacts, that it would not be used as a pretext for striking against Iraq and does not constitute a basis for any automatic strikes against Iraq. The resolution should not be interpreted, through certain paragraphs, as authorizing any State to use force. It reaffirms the central role of the Security Council in addressing all phases of the Iraqi issue.[4]

In fact, 1441 was used by the Bush administration to justify its invasion at least as much as the IWR and on both counts it was wrong to do so. IWR did not constitute the right to invade Iraq except in specific circumstances that were not met. UNSECRES 1441 did not authorize the US to use military action against Iraq, but it was cited as are reason for doing so anyway.