T.G.O.L.A.C.D.F.S.H., Part 3 of 9,704

I'm getting tired of writing out Thank God Our Leaders Are Completely Different From Saddam Hussein so many times, so I think I'll start abbreviating it.

Saddam did not accept the right of the United Nations to impose any conditions on Iraq, Iraq's signature on the U.N. charter notwithstanding.

-- The Threatening Storm by Kenneth Pollack, p. 61

The truth is we should never turn America's national security decisions over to international bodies or leaders of other countries.

-- George Bush, October 15, 2004

The funny thing is that we now know Iraq did -- after many years of deception and noncompliance -- accept its WMD obligations under the relevant UN resolutions. Yes, so funny. Ha ha.

In fact, one of the most startling things about the Duelfer report is it says Saddam repeatedly told regime officials that Iraq would not restart its WMD programs, if the Security Council "abides by its obligations pertaining to these resolutions."

The report presumes Saddam was referring to paragraph 14 of UN Security Council Resolution 687. 687 imposed a WMD ban on Iraq, but also stated this was a step toward making the mideast "a zone free from weapons of mass destruction." America always remembered the part about disarming Iraq, but always seemed to forget this other part. I wonder why.

As far as Bush goes, the simple truth is that every country that signs the UN Charter thereby turns "national security decisions over to international bodies." Of course, no country abides by that if they can get away with it. But that's why I juxtaposed those quotes -- Saddam hated the UN's rules, but so does the US. The main difference is that we can get away with defying them, and Saddam couldn't.