It's the UN, stupid! (The Last Word).(Column)

"This war is all about UN resolutions," observed radio commentator Rush Limbaugh on March 14th. Perhaps the most influential of the Bush administration's media flacks, Limbaugh somehow lurched into the truth about the administration's policy toward Iraq. Rather than defying the UN to protect America's interests, President Bush is putting the U.S. military into the service of implementing resolutions the world body is too timid or impotent to enforce.

For decades, the UN and its supporters -- particularly Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- have complained that the organization is crippled by the reluctance of its member states to provide it with adequate money and manpower. The Bush administration has taken essentially the same position: With the UN hamstrung by divisions in the Security Council, it falls to the United States and its "coalition of the willing" to enforce the UN's will by disarming Iraq.

"I understand the wars of the 21st century are going to require incredible international cooperation," stated the president during his March 16th press conference in the Azores. "And the UN must mean something. Remember Rwanda, or Kosovo. The UN didn't do its job.... [A]ll of us need to step back and try to figure out how to make the UN work better as we head into the 21st century."

Historically, the conservative critique of the UN has been that it should not do what it claims the power to do -- namely, enforce the will of the "international community" regarding disarmament, environmental regulations, and so forth. Under Bush, there has been a dramatic revision in the conservative party line: Now the UN is being criticized for failing to carry out the tasks it has set for itself. The "problem," in other words, is that the UN has too little power, so the president is willing to lend it some of ours.

"This is not a question of authority, it is a question of will," insisted the president in his March 17th prime-time address. Citing UN Security Council resolutions 678, 687, and 1441, Mr. Bush indicted "some permanent members of the Security Council" who opposed military action to enforce the UN's decrees. "These governments share our assessment of the danger, but not our resolve to meet it." The United States and its coalition partners, however, are ready and willing "to enforce the just demands of the world. The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours."

As in scores of previous speeches, President Bush's March 17th address depicted the United Nations -- not ...