IRVINE, CA--The conventional wisdom is that Bush's speech last week to the U.N. and his decision to seek a Security Council resolution on Iraq was a "brilliant" maneuver that galvanized the administration's long-sought international "consensus" against Iraq. Robert W. Tracinski was a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute between 1997 and 2004.
"But in fact," said Robert Tracinski, a senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, "Bush's diplomatic strategy is collapsing, as all of the countries that endorsed his U.N. speech--from Russia to Saudi Arabia--now scramble to applaud Saddam Hussein's latest empty pledge to readmit weapons inspectors.
"Iraq said that it will 'unconditionally' accept weapons inspectors--and then invited the U.N. to discuss under what conditions those unconditional inspections will take place. The Bush administration declared, of course, that it will not play this kind of diplomatic game, that it will demand nothing less than "truly unconditional" inspections. But using inspections as a substitute for war makes diplomatic games inevitable. It changes the issue from the black and white of war vs. peace, to a series of gray areas and debatable details. As one administration official asked, 'Are you going to be able to go to war because inspectors were kept in a parking lot for 15 minutes?'"
Tracinski noted that the deepest failure of Bush's policy in Iraq "is not his attempt to renew the useless weapons inspections but the fact that he chose to subordinate America's war-making power to the procedures and dictates of the U.N.
"Eleven years ago," Tracinski said, "Bush's father allowed the U.N. to become the arbiter and defender of America's cease-fire with Iraq. Last week, Bush laid out the results: Iraq's blatant, unpunished violation of 16 separate U.N. resolutions, starting just three months after the Gulf War. This does not just make the case against Saddam; it makes the case against the U.N., demonstrating the folly of placing America's national security in the hands of an organization that is hostile or indifferent to America's interests.
"Kowtowing to the U.N. is how America surrendered its victory in the first Gulf War. We must not allow the same policy to prevent us from fighting and winning the Gulf War the second time around."