After ridiculing George Bush as a unilateralist cowboy for most of his term in office, the New York Times demands more unilateralism from the White House in its editorial today. The Gray Lady wants Bush to start bypassing the United Nations on a range of issues, a rather startling 180-degree turn:

Closing our eyes for another two years isn’t an answer. Washington needs to assert its leadership, no matter how tattered, on all these fronts.

We suspect that cargo inspections and a cutoff of military and luxury trade will not be enough to get North Korea to back down. But having started there, Mr. Bush now needs to tell China and Russia that all future relations will be judged on how they hold the North to account.

Beijing and Moscow would find it harder to say no if Mr. Bush made a clear pledge — no caveats and no fingers crossed behind his back — that he would not try to overthrow North Korea’s government if it abandoned its nuclear weapons. Mr. Bush needs to make the same unambiguous offer to Iran. As for Darfur, Khartoum might feel less cocky if Mr. Bush announced that he was taking the lead on soliciting troops for a peacekeeping force while asking NATO to start drawing up plans for a possible forced entry should the United Nations fail to act.

So now it's OK to invade another sovereign nation without UN approval? Funny, the Times didn't take this position on Iraq, a nation that had continually violated the cease-fire Saddam Hussein signed to keep his butt in Baghdad in 1991. They didn't think invading Iraq to stop genocides of Shi'ites and Kurds was such a fine idea. The Times didn't approve of it despite Saddam's numerous attacks on our military pilots enforcing the no-fly zones that protected those populations from further reprisals.

He's not the only newly-converted unilateralist, either. Kofi Annan, the blessedly outgoing Secretary-General of the UN, also demanded unilateral diplomacy to resolve the standoff with North Korea, cutting out the other nations that have to live with the Pyongyang pipsqueak:

As Mr. Bush spoke, Secretary-General Annan urged America to hold one-on-one talks with North Korea, something America has refused to do.

I guess that cowboy philosophy sounds much better when other nations block one's own pet causes. (via It Shines For All)

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