It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

So says Steven Taylor about the Kerry mantra that once he becomes president he will get the international community more involved in Iraq.

I continue to fail to see how just asking more nicely, or giving the UN a greater role (which it is rather uncler how much they want one, or, more importantly, what they would do with one) would "induce" greater international cooperation. This strikes me as patently incorrect. It is clear that the powers who don't want to be involved now will not want to be involved in the future just because of a UN imprimatur.

I find myself agreeing with this line of thinking. I think perhaps, I might take it one step further and argue that Kerry's firm assurance that all it will take is him living in the White House to secure the cooperations of legions of French, German, and Russian troops in stabilizing Iraq is actually a rather scathing indictment of said French, Germans and Russians. They are, apparently, withholding their support for the U.S.-led effort in Iraq, not because of genuine and sincere policy differences about whether the outside world should be in Iraq or because of a rational cost-benefit analysis that resulted in the conclusion that participation in Iraq would be detrimental to their interests but rather merely because it is George W. Bush (and not John F. Kerry) who is doing the asking. If our putative allies are really withholding support for a venture out of personal pique at Bush and could be so easily swayed by the stentorian nuance of Kerry, their support won't be worth much.