Brilliant:
>But it is true that we would be glad for more help than we are getting. Nations that have useful peacekeepers at their disposal probably aren't going to come in to do their share about the collegial problem in the Mideast. The administration acknowledges this by the verve with which we are setting up an Iraqi Governing Council to take over as much of the burden as can be shared. The crystallizing position of our summer friends is that they wish U.N. authority to replace U.S. authority in Iraq. The French and the Germans are pretty direct on this point, and the U.N. bureaucracy is itching for authority. It isn't immediately obvious just what points of contention there would be between the U.S. and the U.N. in the management of the Iraqi problem. Oil revenue, perhaps, though any surplus is many years down the road. What would threaten joint action is the importunate voice of Muslim fundamentalism. Kofi Annan is not built to press his own views athwart the hard opposition of non-Western opinion.
Particularly that last bit on Annan’s build.
http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buck...ckley090503.asp
Iran is ‘Phase III’:
>America will tomorrow demand that the UN takes urgent action to prevent Iran acquiring the atom bomb as fears mount that Teheran is on course to develop a nuclear weapons capability within two years. US officials will make the demand at a special meeting of the IAEA in Vienna that has been arranged to consider a 10-page report by Mohammed al-Baradei, the agency's director-general, into the state of Iran's nuclear programme.
>Washington has already expressed deep concern about the discovery of traces of weapons grade uranium found in soil samples taken from one of Iran's top secret nuclear facilities last July.
>In his report, a copy of which has been obtained by The Telegraph, Mr al-Baradei lists serious concerns raised by UN weapons inspectors about the scope of Iran's nuclear programme, which Teheran continues to insist is aimed at developing a nuclear power industry. Inspectors are particularly concerned about activity at a nuclear complex at Natanz, in central Iran, which has sophisticated equipment for enriching uranium to weapons grade standard. Even though the complex was built five years ago, the Iranian authorities only confirmed its existence to the IAEA earlier this year after its location was revealed by Iranian exiles.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...requestid=43073
Now I’m going to make a ‘wild’ guess and anticipate the critical leftie reaction; hoax, faulty intelligence, unsubstantiated, American arm-twisting, oil greed, a crusade against Islam, the CIA trying to conceal its date smuggling trade, Bushian effort to distract American public from his failure to deliver OBL and Saddam’s heads on a platter, pre-election positioning of force for a patriotic victory parade close in November…