Numerous countries, including most members of the European Union, Russia, China and virtually all of the Group of Seven, or G7, major industrialized states, are clamoring for the United Nations to play a leading role in Iraq. Even some coalition partners, such as Britain, have been urging the United States to accord the United Nations considerable influence, mostly…

It sounds like the punch line to a bad joke. According to media reports, the U.N. Secretary-General's office has already drawn up detailed plans for the United Nations to step in and administer Iraq three months after the war ends. The confidential blueprint calls for setting up a U.N. "Assistance Mission" in Baghdad that would oversee a post-Saddam…

For a nation of just 20 million people, Australia is punching way above its weight on the international stage. With 2,000 Australian troops, together with navy frigates and fighter jets being deployed to the Persian Gulf, Australia is the only country that has so far offered substantial military units to fight alongside Great Britain and the United States in the…

According to French President Jacques Chirac, the United States is little more than a bully on the world stage, determined to intimidate all who fail to see the need to disarm Saddam Hussein. But we have nothing on Chirac, who can bully with the best of them when things don't go his way. Consider how he's using the pro-American sentiments voiced by certain…

President Bush's State of the Union address to the American people was a damning indictment of the Iraqi regime. It was powerful, passionate and compelling. Even the most hardened critics of the Bush administration's foreign policy could not fail to have been moved by the President's graphic account of the brutalisation of the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussein's…

Still believe the conventional wisdom regarding a possible war with Iraq -- that the United States will be forced to "go it alone"? Then consider the case of France, who may well turn around and join America in removing Saddam Hussein from power. Yes, France. To be sure, Paris officials have made a near cottage industry out of criticizing Washington's approach…

What Gerhard Schroeder proudly calls "the German way" is actually Europe's new German problem. It's become clear that Berlin's recent break with Washington over Iraq signals a fundamental clash of values. U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agree on the nature of the Iraqi threat because they share bedrock convictions about the…

Britain's participation in any U.S.-led war on Iraq may seem a foregone conclusion, especially now that the U.N. Security Council has unanimously accepted a new U.N. resolution designed to disarm Iraq once and for all -- one that Britain helped the United States write. But before Prime Minister Tony Blair can lead Britain into war, he must slay two dragons in his…

To hear German officials tell it, it won't take long to heal the rift that developed between Washington and Berlin during Gerhard Schroeder's campaign for re-election as chancellor. "I'd be very surprised if we had a prolonged crisis of confidence," a senior German diplomat told The Washington Post. Adds Wolfgang Ischinger, Berlin's ambassador to the United States:…