Abstract

The UN, the US and Iraq

The article offers observations on concessions made by the United Nations (UN) to the U.S. demands regarding Iraqi non-compliance with UN Security Council resolutions. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's agreement with Saddam Hussein was designed to resolve problems with the arms inspections and stave off the threat of the U.S. war. The U.S. and Great Britain have devastated Iraq in the four-day miniwar of bombs and cruise missiles known as Desert Fox, which was not authorized by the UN. The rationales for international intervention such as Serb human rights violations in Kosovo and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs were legitimate according to the U.S. which were used as pretexts to impose an international military occupation.