Bush gave his speech to the UN as I was driving to work. NPR broadcast it and I heard the whole thing. This was a major achievement for me, as I usually sprain my thumb on the remote control whenever his smirking chimp face appears on the television. I guess he is less offensive enough on the radio that I can stomach a ten minute speech. But just barely.
As usual, I got caught up with how every statement he made was more brazenly hypocritical than the last. Hussein's regime is not legitimate (takes one to know one). Hussein has flagrantly violated international agreements (just like someone else I know). He has blah, blah, blah. No one (at least in the mainstream press) seemed to notice that Bush made a convincing argument for why the United States should be subject to a preemptive strike leading to a regime change.
But I digress. It was hard to follow everything Bush said while I was simultaneously yelling at the dashboard. But in following the story since his speech, something has become clear: Bush did try to appear to make a multilateral appeal. Sure, it was wrapped in bluster, but he tried to convince the UN to support his inevitable war by making arguments related to UN sanctions. In other words, he changed tactics. Sure, his fawning sycophants in the press are in awe of how he bent the UN to his will, but it was Bush's will that changed, not the UN's.
Sort of.
With Hussein calling Bush's bluff and agreeing to unconditional weapons inspections, the Bushies have once again blundered and shown their Mars-red warmongering colors. They could have declared victory and milked their "superior negotiating skills" for weeks. But they want war, and a simple inconvenience like having their demands met is not going to get in their way.
There is no way the UN Security Council will go along with a preemptive military strike intended to topple Hussein's regime with Iraq agreeing to unconditional weapons inspections. So Bush is back to having to go it alone. His cheerleading section can come up with all the synonyms for "masterful" they want to describe his UN performance, but Bush was merely bluffing and he didn't have a backup plan for when his bluff got called.
Any truly responsible leader would be trying to avoid war. It should be a last resort, and for a superpower, it should never be "preemptive". Bush is nearing completion of our transition to rogue state. As soon as he attacks Iraq, he will have finished the job.
9:57:11 PM 
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