Irrelevance

The one good thing we can always count on from the United Nations is that they will always be tireless in reminding us on a daily basis that they are the biggest "BFD" entity on the face of the planet they imagine themselves to govern.

Today's case in point (via CQ):

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council reached a deal yesterday on a resolution that would give Iran until the end of next month to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of sanctions.

The latest draft is weaker than an initial proposal from Britain, France and Germany, with US backing. Although the earlier version would have made the threat of sanctions immediate if Iran did not comply, the new draft would essentially give Iran another chance to come around. That was a victory for Russia and China, arguing that the resolution was not an ultimatum but a new request for Iran to accept a deal that would give it various incentives if it suspended uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

“There are no sanctions introduced on Iran in the draft resolution that we are finalising,” Vitali Churkin, the Russian Ambassador to the UN, said. He emphasised that work on the resolution was not finished. [emphasis added]

So, then, what was the point of this resolution? Even one WITH sanctions wouldn't have had any affect whatsoever on Iranian decision-making regarding their nuclear program - sheesh, did sanctions ever bring Saddam Hussein to heel, even before the Oily Food gravy train got rolling? But a resolution without even fake teeth is plainly and simply an f'ing waste of time.

Why didn't we and our "allies" fight for the original resolution against the Russkies and ChiComms? The "need for Security Council unity"? That's the only excuse I can think of. But wouldn't a deadlocked Security Council at least send a message as to just who it is that is running inteference for the mullahs at Turtle Bay, just as they did Saddam Hussein before them? As well as shining a 500-watt klieg light on the futility of pursuing this matter through "multilateral" institutions? Whereas doesn't the Western democracies meekly caving to Tehran's sponsors tell the mullahs most of all, but also the rest of our enemies in the GWOT, that we have less resolve than ever before, such that we won't even push for penalties that won't penalize, much less deter?

Not only did the Iranians openly ridicule this resolution on Saturday, but today they were calling it "illegal." It makes me wonder if we haven't already passed the "Munich line," beyond which no ultimatum, or even massing of forces in Iran's frontiers, would be taken seriously by the mullahs, so contemptuous have they become of us (and our "allies").

Perhaps Adolph Hitler's true curse was that he was born half a century too early. Today's post-modern world, which makes the Chamberlains and Daladiers and League of Nations of the 1930s look like Churchillian rocks of courageous resolve, would be easy pickings for a man whose greatest strength was always the fecklessness of his intended prey.

I doubt the mullahgarchy has failed to draw that same lesson.

UPDATE: I don't know how much of a favor this really is to John Bolton, but Chucky Schumer is now changing his tune on a second filibuster designed to take him away from his lonely crusade as just about the only voice of sanity and civilization in a den of thieves, crooks, and wannabe Holocausters. Which means it is increasingly likely that Big John will have congressional backing to continue having to put up with "allies" who consider Iran to be a "stabilizing force" in the Middle East.

Migraine-bait for Ambassador Bolton, but a Godsend for the rest of us.