The Iraqi War

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Seven years ago the ‘The Dominion Post’ had an excellent editorial about the Iraqi war:.

‘Whether it is a war with United Nations backing or one led by the USA without UN sanction, it will make little difference to Iraqi civilians, The missiles will sound the same. The fear will feel the same. And the human devastation will produce the same terrible grief. If war goes ahead, it will represent a spectacular failure of diplomacy so soon in the new millennium. … It is hard not to conclude … that Iraqi President and US President George Bush have met their match in each other – a shared determination never to back down.'

'Former New Zealand Ambassador to the UN Terence O’Brien has accurately described the situation as having “an element of contrived crisis”. … The fundamental question, why, has yet to be answered. Why does the US so badly want a war? President Bush tells us there needs to be a war because Iraq is openly flouting a UN resolution. There is little doubt that this is so, But even so, a complete paucity of diplomatic imagination is exposed if the only answer to flouting a UN resolution is to go to war. Other countries including Israel have regularly ignored UN resolutions and in doing so have never had a response like this. For the US to say that the UN risks being seen as toothless unless it acts to uphold its sanctions is ironic, because nothing will undermine the UN quite like the US declaring war while the UN is trying to stop it. … We will all pay.’