Much has been made recently of the Viet Nam era cliche of destroying a village in order to save it in reference to the current Iraq war.

It seems to me that this was the effect, if not necessarily the intended consquence, of our diplomatic efforts vis a vis the United Nations. The US government made an effort to threaten the UN with irrelevance unless it performed in a fashion that the UN was clearly unlikely to perform. Now it's unclear whether or not this course of action will result in the UN's irrelevance or breakdown. But the most powerful member of the UN, by treating the UN with such bullying and contempt, has undoubtedly damaged the UN.

My hope is that a new government in the US, come January 2005, that respects international law and recognizes that a strong UN can deliver increased international security without dropping a single bomb, could work to repair this damage.