Lifting of Sanctions Linked to U.N. Role

Russia, France and other key Security Council members set the stage today for a new battle over Iraq, signaling that the United States must give the United Nations a broader role in reconstruction efforts before sanctions can be lifted.

One word for this: blackmail.

Any doubts I harbored that these countries were putting their own diplomatic concerns ahead of what was the best for the people of Iraq have just been eliminated. Is there any other way to justify keeping the sanctions in place? Didn't France and Russia want to remove the sanctions a few years ago because of the humanitarian crisis? Didn't they argue that inspectors could prevent the development of weapons of mass destruction? If so, won't the 100,000 members of the coalition armed forces take care of that? Since we are in control of Iraq, do they want the sanction to prevent US from developing WMD there? Please, please explain to me how I'm seeing this incorrectly. I don't like believing our past and future allies are completely amoral.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 10:04 AM