Keith Devens .com

"Post-game analysis"

Steven Den Beste has a great article analyzing a few reasons why spending time mired in U.N. diplomacy really wasn't a total waste of time.

Now that the charade with the UN is finished, it will be easy to look back on it and condemn the entire enterprise as having been a major blunder. It certainly seems as if we took a lot of damage in the process, and apparently alienated many of the world's governments. We almost lost our most important ally (Tony Blair) and faced the possibility of having a new government in the UK which would not cooperate in the war. We also failed to gain the cooperation of Turkey, to permit a northern front, and now even to permit us to use Turkish airspace or to continue to use Incirlik airbase. Because of that, over a hundred American and British jets are probably going to sit out the main phase of the war (though they performed a vital function in preparations over the last few months).

But there were at least three major benefits of that process, and in the long run they'll be far more important than any costs we paid in the process. First, it made Congress pass an authorization for war which did not include a requirement for UNSC approval. Second, it protected our troops during deployment. Third, it flushed out the weasels.

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13:55 (utc-5)