WHAT'S DONE CAN'T BE U.N.-DONE

You Brits have not been cheated by the US (Anne Applebaum, 13/07/2003, Daily Telegraph)

Tony Blair arrives here in Washington next week, an occasion which is sure to spark an outpouring of emotion. The British press will be awash with poodle cartoons. The American Congress will ring with his praises. And practically no one will ask how on earth it is possible that the British and the Americans have lately conceived such different views of the hoary old "special relationship", and come up with such different valuations of its worth. [...]

As far as we are concerned, Blair received everything he asked for, in return for his support on Iraq. After all, what he really, really wanted, as practically no one in Britain seems to remember now, was for the US to stick with the convoluted United Nations weapons inspection process, and for America to request a second UN resolution, in the run-up to the Iraqi invasion.

Even if you don't remember this episode in Britain, we recall quite vividly the humiliating spectacle of American diplomats grovelling before Cameroon's UN delegation, and the sight of Colin Powell, our dignified Secretary of State, begging and pleading and nevertheless failing to get the Mexicans, our next door neighbours, to sign on - and all in order to pass a resolution that we thought, quite frankly, completely pointless. But the Prime Minister's lawyers told him he needed it, and, despite the embarrassment, we dutifully tried.

Cam-a-freakin'-roon... Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2003 12:50 PM