Kofi Annan says Bush's reasons for war in Iraq damaged "credibility" vital for International Law.

Feb. 7, 2004 (#2): PoliSat .Com's Political Satire/ Commentary* Daily Update # 02·· ™©·2004·(Home)·
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Kofi Annan says Bush's reasons for war in Iraq damaged "credibility" vital for International Law.·

Recent comments by David Kay about his conclusions that he, and other intelligence experts, had been in error in believing Saddam Hussein still maintained large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons ignited a rancorous political debate over the issue of "credibility." Despite the fact that the substance of a subsequent speech by CIA Director George Tenet at Georgetown University made plain why the majority view among intelligence analysts before the war was that there was credible evidence of the continuing existence of such stockpiles and covert work in Iraq for the purposes of advancing Saddam Hussein's WMD programs, Tenet's statement that analysts had not claimed to have found an "imminent threat" led critics to imply that such statement somehow contradicted Bush's pre-war State of the Union speech explicitly stating that we could not wait for a gathering danger from Saddam Hussein remaining in power to mature into an "imminent threat."

Seeing partisan debate in the U.S. becoming increasingly rancorous over Bush's reasons for war in Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan decided to provide comic relief yesterday by lecturing the United States on the importance of "credibility" in the international arena. Annan later said the thoughts occurred to him spontaneously as he walked toward a joint outdoor press conference with Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell yesterday outside U.N. Headquarters.

In opening the press conference, Annan explained that it offered an excellent opportunity for him to present international-law arguments to buttress his criticism of Bush's reasons for war in Iraq. Resisting impulses to make undiplomatic gestures, Powell and Rice stood by politely while Annan lectured them as surrogates for Bush on the fundamentals of international law.

Poetic Pot-Shots from the Annan Cannon.·

Stressing the importance of the "predictability" element of "international law," Annan positioned himself in the seemingly mystic glow of a beam of light shining through a break in the clouds as he explained how flawed intelligence led the U.S. to damage this important element of international law by undermining the long-held expectations among nations that U.N. resolutions continue to be meaningless. Annan concluded by reminding everyone that if "wiser heads" were to have prevailed to allow Hans Blix to continue inspections rather than launching Operation Iraqi Freedom, the entire world would still be convinced that Saddam Hussein was still hiding massive quantities of chemical and biological weapons and that such perception could have been maintained indefinitely until proof were to appear in the form of chemical or biological weapons being used by terrorists leaving traces of chemical and/or biological agents bearing indisputable signatures of Iraqi laboratories. When puzzled expressions appeared on the faces of Rice and Powell, Annan decided to rephrase his lesson on international law in the more elegant language of Diplomatic Poetry:

Says Annan to Powell, You see,
if Bush had just listened to me,
by letting Hussein
in power remain,
we'd think he has dubya-M-D's.

By launching the war Dubya managed
to cause irreversible damage
to Council's ability
to show credibility
for terms of appeasement we manage.

And therefore, the future would hold
the proof of the risks you foretold
as terror attacks
with weapons you'd track
as bought from Saddam Hussein's holds.

After Annan performed three encores in response to wild applause by reporters from the BBC and other European news media, Rice and Powell responded in their own poetic manner:

Your comments oblige us to say
to claims that we should've delayed
the war 'til Saddam
had readied a bomb
covertly for terror, "No way!"

Quite frankly we lack the agility
to seek absolute credibility
for safety to bet
when imminent threat
matures from a dang'rous ability.

Hearing no applause from the media in response to the Rice/Powell duet, Annan reprised his poetic lesson several more times to thunderous applause. When Annan finally quit from exhaustion, the BBC and European reporters rushed to report to their editors the wisdom, brilliance and insightfulness of Annan's impromptu lesson on International Law.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor@PoliSat.Com.

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