One would think that the cheerleaders for waging war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, on the thoroughly discredited grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, would have retreated into a period of quiet introspection. In fact, it is as difficult to find any trace of embarrassment, humility or repentance as it has been to find a trace of the supposedly ubiquitous and deadly WMD in Iraq. Instead many of the columnists and newspapers that clearly believe that attack is the best form of defense have gone on the offensive against the United Nations and Secretary General Kofi Annan.
And when Annan dared to suggest that the war had been illegal, and cautioned against a major military offensive in Fallujah because of the heightened risk of civilian casualties, the Wall Street Journal in an editorial described the secretary general's letter as "a hostile act" (Nov. 8).
The fiercest attack on the U.N. has concentrated on the oil-for-food scandal. Thus William Safire, writing in his New York Times column on Nov. 15, accused Annan of "stonewalling" and "obstruction of justice."