A dwindling case for going it alone - Boston Globe...GOOD!

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Cheap and dirty tricks only win in the short term..

A dwindling case for going it alone


By Thomas Oliphant, 7/22/2003

WASHINGTON


THE ONCE MIGHTY unilateralists around President Bush - Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld - are in the process of losing another fight against a broadly international response to the mess in Iraq.

A year ago they lost a bizarre argument about whether to invade Iraq without special authorization by Congress and without a last-chance effort to forge a workable consensus through the United Nations.

The current struggle, however, pales in comparison to the one a year ago. The hearts of the vice president and defense secretary are not in this one. Facts on the ground have obliterated their case that a quasi-revival of colonial administration with the United States running the show is feasible or even desirable. Facts at the Treasury - $4 billion a month for an American-run occupation at an absolute minimum indefinitely - have eroded domestic support. There is simply no case to be made for unilateralism after three months of avoidable mistakes that are costing lives, treasure, and international standing.

A year ago - most likely via the gentle nudging of Bush's father - the case was made that the United States should not go to war with narrow domestic support and virtually nonexistent support from the rest of the world.


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