Still squandering goodwill

As I'm sure everyone is well aware, George W. Bush so alienated our allies by spending a year and a half asking them to respect their own UN edicts that they won't even consider multilateralism anymore.

Underscoring Democrat John Kerry's claim last spring that some world leaders said they'd prefer that President Bush be turned out of office, well-equipped powers like Russia, China, France and Germany won't offer to send troops to protect UN officials working to hold elections in Iraq in January.

"There is no way anybody is going to step up before the [American] election. It's personal enmity toward the President. They can't stand him," said the official, who asked not to be named.

If you are perhaps not convinced that snubbing multilateral institutions is a principled response to ultra-reactionary extremist cowboys, just ask the world (which of course consists of the two countries which call themselves 'Europe', and sundry leftist activists).

"Somebody should step up and protect the UN election officials as they try to promote democratic elections in a sovereign nation that had been run by a despot. ... It's a shame, regardless of how we got there," the official added.

Wait... but... protecting UN officials in the Iraqi elections sounds like real principle - not that completely unsupportable bunk that eurotwinks usually call principle. That could only mean...

"They are spinning for domestic political reasons," the official said. "If Kerry is elected we wouldn't send troops either. We don't need more targets in Iraq."

... that the New York Daily News actually found a genuine French official whose assesment does not begin with the question "How did the evil stupidity of Bush create tragedy?" I wonder if Snopes has seen this yet...