NEW YORK -- One of the first casualties of any war -- although often overlooked -- is language. Perhaps this has never been more true than in the present war against Iraq. Diplomacy, we are told, "failed." The United Nations, we are told, has become "irrelevant." The attack against Iraq, we are told, is "totally legal under international law." A careful analysis can show that these supposed "truths" are actually false.
The fact that most of the countries in the U.N. Security Council refused to condone war against Iraq was not a failure of diplomacy. It was a failure by the United States and Britain to force Security Council members to authorize an unpopular and illegal course of action.
When countries with relatively little power can stand up to the most powerful country in the world and its few allies, that does not means that diplomacy has failed. On the contrary, it means that diplomacy has succeeded.