For the second time, the French have been instrumental in securing the independence of the United States of America. At the birth of our country, the assistance of the French monarchy was vital in our struggle against King George III. Today, the assistance of the French President and Foreign Minister has been instrumental in securing American independence from the constraints of the United Nations.
The currently circulating idea that the U.N. Security Council must approve any American military action does not date from 1945, but from 1990. It is the legacy of Bush the elder. From the founding of the United Nations until the Gulf War, the United Nations was paralyzed by the Cold War and was acknowledged to be irrelevant to reality. The United Nations was acknowledged by all sensible people to be a cesspool, a platform for terrorists like Yasser Arafat and cannibals like Idi Amin to denounce Israel.
But with the surrender of the Soviet Union, the Cold War ended. At the almost the same time, Iraq invaded Kuwait and Bush the elder had to assemble the alliance that fought the Gulf War. He chose to do so through the United Nations, speaking of a New World Order of world peace enforced through the agreement of the great powers in the UN Security Council. This placed the interests and security of the United States at the mercy of any of the other Security Council powers. Bush the elder failed to consider the effect that envy and resentment of American power would have on these countries.
The end of the Cold War unnerved the anti-Americans of the world. They are nervous of a world based on power, especially since America has so much of it and they have next to none. They latched on to Bush the elder’s revival of the United Nations, and based largely on the precedent of the Gulf War, they have declared war without the sanction of the Security Council “illegal.” Harnessing American power to the Security Council yoke, this would create a French, Russian and Chinese veto on American action to secure our interests.
Bush the younger, after committing himself to the removal of the Iraqi threat, placed the issue of Iraq before the United Nations, challenging the UN to prove its relevance or irrelevance in solving the problems of the world. The result is known–a resolution was passed in November, supported by France because it would delay American military action. When the time came to enforce the resolution, France was unalterably opposed to America removing a threat to our and the world’s security. The United Nations has proven its irrelevance. It is inconceivable that the United States would take another serious issue to the Security Council for negotiation, that the United States would again allow its security to be held hostage by our rivals in Paris, Moscow or Beijing.
The greatest danger to the independence, and thus a great danger to the security, of the United States, has been vanquished, thanks to the policy of the French. They have my gratitude.
