Many U.S. leaders have criticized the United Nations recently as being more skeptical and critical than an average jury when hearing American diplomats present their case for war with Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell took his chances when he addressed the U.N. Security Council Wednesday.
But the international organization has little choice to the contrary if it is to remain the backbone for peace in the world.
Still, world leaders such as former South African President Nelson Mandela are mistaken to say the United States should not go before the United Nations to present its case.
Mandela said before Powell's address U.S. intervention was undermining the United Nations' own efforts to determine whether Iraq is concealing weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations does have an obligation to listen to the U.S. case against Iraq if it is to make the most informed decision on how to handle the situation.
Likewise, the Security Council should be open to hearing from Iraqi leaders, as there is more than one side to every story. Iraq should be respected for sending its ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, to sit with the council and hear Powell's address.
Al-Douri said before Powell's address he was on hand to deliver a "message of peace" and later criticized the U.S. diplomat's presentation as "utterly unrelated to the truth."
The Iraqi diplomat told The Associated Press the American presentation to the council was "to sell the idea of war and aggression against Iraq without any legal or moral or political justification."
It's sometimes hard to dispute assertions like that when U.S. leaders continually say, as Powell did Wednesday, that the United Sates - with or without its allies - will forcibly disarm Iraq.
Of the 15 countries represented on the Security Council, only the United States and Britain have voiced support for using force to disarm Iraq.
Perhaps it would behoove U.S. leaders to remember in their crusade to harvest U.N. support cowboy diplomacy died with the Wild West.
At the same time, U.S. diplomats should not let up in their mission to see the United Nations conduct its investigations in a swift and efficient manner. If world peace stands to be compromised by Iraq, then measures to disarm the country should be completed sooner rather than later.
Chances are one country will never harness the support of all others in the call for war. At the same time, the United States needs to understand it and Britain are not the only countries in the world.
If a justified war with Iraq is to be had, it needs to commence through the United Nations. If the United States were to go it alone, then Mandela might be proven right in his assessment that chaos would be introduced to international affairs.
That chaos would have to be stopped.
