Well korpdeath --

To answer the question: Because both France and Germany have an awful lot to lose if their illicit sales of prescribed materials to Iraq over the past 12 years come to light. Let us not forget how those nations sought to undermine the last inpection regime for their own commercial ends. There is, as is so often suggested, a commercial dimension to this whole issue, but that dimension is not brought to the table by the US or UK, nor has it anything to do with oil.

Actions by the Franco-Prussian alliance in the UN are not only devisive, but are liable to render the UN as impotent as its predecessor, the Leage Of Nations. The loss of such a platform for the will of the international community would force the kinds of unlitaterel actions that were the pre-cursors of the last world war. Sending mixed messages to Bagdad at such a time can only serve to reinforce the regimes belief that they can slip through the loophole of our divisions.

In terms of winning the war The US needs the UN like a man going hunting needs an accordian. But to win the peace, to effect regime change and to bring Iraq back into the international community the UN will be vital. The machinations of the Franco-Prussian alliance can only have the effect of making it more difficult for us to win such a peace for the people of Iraq and deal with other rouge state proliferators in the future.