Now, it’s true I haven’t written since then that the UN should take over in Iraq. I don’t think I’ve written that it shouldn’t either. Though maybe I have in an incidental way, I just don’t recall – much as I didn’t recall writing the offending passage until people passed it along.

Anyway, I’m not sure I see the huge hypocrisy on my part. Let’s start from the top. If you read that column, you’ll see that the reason I supported the if-no-WMDs-then-hand-it-to-the-UN deal was first and foremost to convince France, Germany and Russia to get behind the US during an ongoing war. If you’ve read the papers since March, you’ll recall that they didn’t join the coalition, they didn’t get with the program. That changes the equation pretty considerably. I was not in favor of handing the keys to Iraq over to the United Nations because I think the United Nations is such a wonderful organization. Deferring to them now, without laying the groundwork for it in advance would be a public relations and strategic blunder of huge proportions at this point. However, I do think the UN should get more involved. I do think the administration was right to try to enlist the UN in the effort more. And I do think the UN is betraying its own humanitarian principles by not helping out simply out of fear and anti-Americanism. The fear is understandable, but by giving into it they worsen Iraq’s prospects for healthy future.

So yeah, things have not gone wonderfully on all fronts in Iraq and the UN could help alleviate some of the anti-American sentiment there.

Also, I proposed that idea because I was still fairly certain there would be WMDs found in Iraq and that French and Russian skepticism was an opportunistic pose designed to make us look bad. I think I was right about that then and now. My deal would have called their bluff. We didn’t offer it, they didn’t take it. In retrospect that might be a good thing. I’m not sure. But I am sure that suggesting I’m a hypocrite because I don’t support an idea which is now totally obsolete is, charitably speaking, unpersuasive.