April 02, 2004
Again and again and again
ABCNEWS.com : Allies Balk at Iraq NATO Peacekeeping Role: "BRUSSELS, Belgium April 2 — NATO allies hedged Friday on assuming a peacekeeping role in Iraq, deferring a decision until after an interim Baghdad government takes over in July. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who urged the 26-nation alliance to intervene, said he thought it was unlikely NATO would take on the role unless the new Iraqi government approves"Once again, Bush has asked our allies to work with us.
Once again, he's been rebuffed.
And once again this will not make the slightest dent in the ceaseless drumbeat of lies; the claims that Bush is an arrogant right-wing unilateralist who scorns our allies and tramples on the "International Community." Mr Kerry will continue to claim that he would do things "differently."
Posted by John Weidner at April 2, 2004 09:35 AM | TrackBackJohn:
I disagree that the NATO countries rebuffed Bush. Here's a counterintuitive proposition: Bush and Blair have repudidated the Westphalian system of absolute state sovereignity; however, neither has articulated in a consistent fashion the significance of what they've implemented (Blair is more forthright but I haven't heard of any of the North American media reporting Blair's speeches on the topic) Cobsequently, the NATO countries still work with the Westphalian assumptions that since the Iraqis will recliam their sovereignity in July, the government will decide whether or not to invite NATO.
So it's not so much that NATO allies reject helping out America; rather it's that Bush has never explained why the Westphalian system must be modified and how Iraq is a test case of the new relativized state sovereignity doctrine
xavier
That's very interesting. Do you have any links to Blair's thoughts?
Posted by: John Weidner at April 2, 2004 03:11 PM
