It would be prudent for U.S. diplomats to curb their squabble with the United Nations and begin mending America's botched relationship with the global order.
Our nation's leaders made a bad choice Tuesday when they shot down a request from U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq so they can be on hand to independently verify the discovery of any weapons of mass destruction.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said coalition forces are to finish the job started by the United Nations.
The Bush administration is wrong to balk this win-win situation for the United States' effort to regain favor on the world's stage.
Coalition forces built their war machine on what weapons inspectors described as shaky intelligence and failed to gain U.N. favor in their effort to disarm Iraq.
If weapons of mass destruction are to be found in Iraq post-Saddam Hussein, the United States should allow the United Nations the chance to discover them.
Despite the war's end, coalition forces haven't found the smoking gun that stands to convince the world their pre-emptive measures were justified. U.S. leaders should jump at the chance to allow the United Nations to discover America and Britain were right all along.
By allowing the United Nations to continue search efforts, coalition forces could both focus their resources on rebuilding Iraq and not risk criticism that they might plant the smoking gun.
It's understandable that coalition forces wish to keep the United Nations on the outskirts of rebuilding efforts given the world body's lack of support for the U.S.-led war. But the United States should not push the global community away for too long. America will not be able to go it alone forever.
If the Bush administration seriously wants the United Nations to lift economic sanctions placed on the country after the 1991 Gulf War to help revive Iraqi markets, Washington is going to have to play politics on the world stage again.
U.S. forces have not yet been able to find chemical or biological weapons in Iraq or evidence that Saddam was building a nuclear bomb, yet American leaders are still positive evidence exists.
It seems like a no-brainer to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country to find what U.S. officials know is there.
Coalition countries, while under no obligation to turn Iraq over to the United Nations for reconstruction, do need to continue operating within the global community.
If U.S. officials are so certain their smoking gun still is out in the Iraqi desert, then they should be more than willing to allow the unconvinced United Nations that chance to see its presumed failure.
The United Nations has a place in the world, and the United States has a duty to act as a positive member of the global community.
