Glenn Kessler handles the analysis of Bush’s speech to the UN in this morning’s Washington Post.
In his speech today to the U.N. General Assembly, President Bush tried to walk a fine line between defending a war deeply unpopular in much of the world and looking for help from reluctant countries to rebuild Iraq. The result left diplomats and lawmakers puzzled about his ultimate intentions.
Bush, in fact, sidestepped direct answers to many of the questions that have arisen since the administration said it would seek a Security Council resolution that would expand the United Nations’ role in Iraq and call on countries to contribute more troops and money. How quickly would the United States grant sovereignty to the Iraqis? Would the administration grant any decision-making role to the United Nations in exchange for its imprimatur? Or does the administration simply want assistance without giving up much in return?
Kessler goes on to point out that Bush wasn’t really speaking to the international community, this speech was designed for a domestic audience. Again and again Bush underestimates the importance of the interenational community and the difference between what they want to hear and what his domestic supporters wish him to say. The contrasts have rarely been as stark as they were yesterday,
But in two speeches that bracketed the president’s address, Annan and French President Jacques Chirac suggested that it is the administration’s doctrine of “preemption” — the promise to strike against emerging threats — that threatens to spread chaos across the globe. Both men bluntly said that the Bush administration is undermining the collective security arrangements that have governed the world since World War II.
“The United Nations has just weathered one of its most serious trials in its history: respect for the [U.N.] Charter, the use of force, were at the heart of the debate,” Chirac said. “The war, which was started without the authorization of the Security Council, has shaken the multilateral system.”
Annan said that reserving “the right to act unilaterally or in ad hoc coalitions . . . represents a fundamental challenge to the principles on which, however imperfectly, world peace and stability have rested for the last 58 years. My concern is that if it were to be adopted, it would set precedents that resulted in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force with or without justification.”
The enthusiastic reaction to those speeches in the General Assembly hall, compared to the tepid, almost perfunctory applause for Bush’s presentation, underscored the difficult task ahead for the administration as it tries to build support for the nascent Iraqi government.
Preemption may be a somewhat popular policy at home, but it scares the hell out of the international community and the President has done nothing to mitigate that fear. Today he gets to face Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder in individual meetings. Good luck!