Jesse Jackson runs off at the mouth again:

Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday said the U.S. occupation of Iraq was a "quagmire" similar to that seen in Vietnam and that the United States must form alliances through the United Nations if it is to withdraw from the country peacefully. ... While the United States is viewed as an occupying force, the United Nations could be seen as a liberating force, he said, adding that "the key to that is to really appeal to China, to France and to Germany to come in as partners under the umbrella of the U.N."

Once again, we get the tired recitation of who needs to approve our foreign policy before the US can take any action in its own interest. This is the first time I've heard China trotted out; as far as I know, China wasn't threatening to veto the 17th resolution. France and Germany -- for the zillionth time -- had billions of dollars invested in Saddam's survival and extensive contacts with Baathists, both in Iraq and Syria. Is this what Jesse wants: coalition partners who would rather reinstall the previous ruling class?

And the idea that the UN is a "liberating force" is sheer nonsense. I challenge Jesse to name one country that the UN has ever liberated. Just one would do, and Kuwait doesn't count; that was an invasion of one sovereign country by an another, which was reversed at Anglo-American insistence only. The UN isn't designed to "liberate" countries, it's designed to protect the status quo.

Jackson said the United States "cannot survive in Iraq as a unilateral occupying force," and that establishing a coalition through the United Nations "could work out the delicate transition from invasion and occupation to self-determination for Iraq."

It's not a "unilateral" occupying force, and Jackson knows it, and it's insulting to Britain and Poland to keep insisting that it is. Poland, by the way, just suffered its first hostile-fire casualty this week, which makes the timing of this statement particularly insulting. Note, by the way, where this speech was given. Not in Chicago, or LA, or New York; nope, he gave this speech in Thailand. So much for foreign-policy debate stopping at the shoreline, eh?

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