Monday, November 04, 2002 PERFIDIOUS PARIS: This is crunch week - and I'm not talking about the elections. At some point very soon, the administration is going to have to make a hard decision about the U.N. Do we keep talking even as Chirac subtly but powerfully undermines international security for the sake of France's Great Power aspirations and lots of lucre? Or do we force a resolution, even if it's one we don't want. I say: stop letting the French drag us around by our noses. France's delaying tactics, as Bob Kagan pointed out yesterday, have now gone beyond a diplomatic dance. They are designed to achieve one thing: a reprieve for Saddam and a humiliation of the United States. That's why it's past time we put an end to them. Besides, if we go on like this much longer, the delay will be fatal. I've long believed that some kind of U.N. mandate would be very helpful in waging what will be a difficult and unpredictable war and occupation. I even think that inspectors aren't completely useless, as long as they are genuinely allowed to operate without conditions and we can interrogate Iraqi scientists outside the country and give their families amnesty to protect them. Perhaps we'll have such inspections at the same time as the U.S. and the allies prepare for invasion: the best of both worlds. But it seems vitally important to me not to give Saddam another year for weak inspections, and then plan on war in 2004. In that secnario, we seem weak; we lose momentum; we invite a counter-attack; and Saddam has even more time to play defense shrewdly and well. The Iraqi dictator knows the game. He even knows that his best friends in maintaining his brutal rule are the anti-war members of Anglo-American left and far right. And he understands that time is on his side. We need to reverse that equation soon - or more lives will be lost to the dictates of the terrorists.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2002