Once again...

A top-notch editorial from the Washington Post on war with Iraq. This one focusing on opposition to such a war as argued by Democrat Senator Carl Levin. Levin, the editorial notes, believes that although Hussein has violated UN Res. 1441, "the United States should go along with proposals for continued inspections, because any action without additional approval from the United Nations would be wrongly "unilateral."" This argument, the editorial rightly indicates, doesn't make sense: "By its logic, the 1999 intervention in Kosovo, which Sen. Levin supported, also would have been "unilateral" and thus unjustified. [...] The problem is not that authority to act is lacking but that a handful of countries are seeking to block the implementation of a unanimously approved resolution."

On the "larger question" of Levin's argument -- the need for a broad alliance -- the editorial comments that some two dozen nations will back the US, including a "decisive majority" of the NATO countries. The editorial continues, analyzing the notion of containment underlying the call for more inspectors: "The risk of a war must also be balanced against the damage to global security from another prolonged and feckless routine of inspections in Iraq. Those who propose such containment rarely acknowledge the previous failure and collapse of that strategy, nor do they explain why it would not be repeated. But history suggests the result would be the survival of a dangerous threat, and a rush by other rogue states to stockpile weapons of mass destruction."

The ultimate argument of those opposed to the war, it states, concern timing and urgency. The response is powerful:

The risk of a war must also be balanced against the damage to global security from another prolonged and feckless routine of inspections in Iraq. Those who propose such containment rarely acknowledge the previous failure and collapse of that strategy, nor do they explain why it would not be repeated. But history suggests the result would be the survival of a dangerous threat, and a rush by other rogue states to stockpile weapons of mass destruction.