Heads We Win, Tails You Lose

The cynical Russians and French, who hope their oil contracts with Saddam will bring them big profits once they appease enough to free Iraq from any constraints at all, are opposed to a new Security Council resolution on Iraq because the old ones work just fine. Arab states are siding with this view (and the oil producers among them have their own selfish reasons for wanting the status quo, oil being only one reason) and they all cry for Iraq to be given one more chance. They want to test Iraq yet again as if the past has not already proven Saddam’s level of reliability. As if the clarification of what "unconditional" means hasn’t done it.

But fine, if we can’t get a tough new resolution that will pave the way for our invasion, I say we agree with the French and Russian. We say, "By golly, you’re right! The old Security Council resolutions on Iraq are still valid. And since Iraq has not obeyed them and thus the Persian Gulf War continues, we now consider Iraq in violation of the ceasefire terms and will commence hostilities at the moment of our own choosing." Then we send them a nice thank you note for their fine defense of the validity of the original resolutions and warn them to keep out of our way. Since the Russians and French sold the Iraqis lots of military hardware, if we see anything Russian or French built that looks suspicious, we will blow it away.

Steady under fire, boys. They’re only France and Russia after all.