[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by scandium

Have to disagree with you Neal, point by point:


Only the UN security council has the authority to enforce security council resolutions. The usual retort to this is that the UN doesn't have the capability to enforce its own resolutions, but history says otherwise: the Persian Gulf War of 1991 was done on a UN mandate.

I never said the US had the authority, did I? No, I said the US enforced the resolutions. The US and allies defended one of the main condition of the cease fire from the first conflict: No interference with weapons inspectors. The UN rolled over like a $3 whore, when Saddam wanted them out, no one stood up to him. We did, although very belatedly. And you say the first war was "done on a UN mandate"... pfft, call it UN, but it was really US. If the US and coalition had sat out that conflict, Saddam would still be in Kuwait. And probably Saudi Arabia by now. Seriously, when has the UN ever done anything significant without a major contribution by the US?

UN inspectors were on the ground looking for these WMDs when the US had them abruptly yanked to begin its invasion.

Yeah, sure. Saddam let them in at the last hour to pull the strings of the appeasement crowd. "Look, I let the weapons inspectors in, I'm a good guy". Hard to believe but that was an effective strategy, some people bought it.

Only to setup an interim dictatorship of its own under the helm of Viceroy Paul Bremer that, during its short reign, privatized Iraqi industry, destroyed the country's economy, and disbanded the Iraqi army - all of which arguably poured fuel over the emerging insurgency.

Yeah, you're really reaching now. Dictator Bremer, huh? Where is he now? Come on, get serious, man.