Stardate 20021023.1056

(On Screen): Sometimes diplomatic rhetoric gets to me. I'm just too much the practical man, I guess. I found myself reading the latest news article about the UN Security Council and began cursing at the monitor as I read the comments from various people:

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted as telling journalists in Moscow that "the American draft resolution ... does not answer the criteria which the Russian side laid out earlier and which it confirms today."

Tough shit.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry official Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying: "The draft practically left out the elements of automatic use of force. But there are other provisions which, in our view, are very hard for Iraqis to accept, the more so because they contradict earlier U.N. Security Council resolutions."

Who cares what the Iraqis think? When did that even become a factor? What Saddam wants is for there to be ineffective inspections and no war, so that they can succeed in making nukes. Are we supposed to find some way to allow that, just so that they'll be happy?

Get it straight: what Iraq wants doesn't matter any more, and I don't care whether it's "hard for them to accept it".

In Amman, Jordan, Iraq's Culture Minister Hamed Yousef Hamadi called the U.S. draft a "declaration of war."

You think?

What were you expecting, a Nobel Peace Prize for Saddam? (Actually, given recent precedent, that isn't all that farfetched.)

One of the major problems for Russia and France has been language in the U.S. proposal that could be interpreted as triggering military action.

Read my lips, folks: one resolution or no resolutions. After all this crap, you think we really want to come back again for further delay and dithering? We'd kind of like to fight and win this war before the end of the century, you know?

Grrr (grumble)...

Update: More moronic comments from diplomats inspiring anger. (Vacation coming; calm down...)

U.N. Security Council debate over a new resolution on Iraq appeared finally to be drawing to a close Wednesday, but the White House said there was only a 50-50 chance of reaching an agreement.

If it's even that high. Remember, what we're gambling on here is whether Paris will be realistic. (Heh.)

"We believe that these consultations will manage to agree on a text acceptable to all, which will be a real basis for a way out of this crisis," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

The only way "out of this crisis" is for Saddam to be removed from power. Since that is what Russia and France are trying to prevent, it's hard to see how any result will be "acceptable to all". (It won't be acceptable to Saddam, that's for sure.)

In Baghdad, Iraq accused the United States Wednesday of wanting war -- with or without Security Council backing.

Ya think?

Syria said Washington had shown "blind bias" toward Israel by ignoring the Jewish state's nuclear weapons and defiance of U.N. resolutions while threatening to attack Iraq over those very issues.

Last time I checked, Israel wasn't sponsoring terrorist attacks against the US. (And isn't it amazing how we tend to favor nations with democratically elected governments and the right of free press over nations ruled by self-selected autocrats who routinely make their critics disappear? Imagine that!)

Cyprus announced that U.N. weapons inspectors seeking Iraqi compliance with disarmament resolutions were to set up a regional headquarters in Cyprus.

The U.N. and Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency approached Cyprus -- broadly viewed as a neutral country in the Middle East -- to create an office on the island, officials in Nicosia said Wednesday.

After all, the view of Iraq from Cyprus is unmatched. What a marvelous place for such a thing. The UN's finest minds at work, folks...

Update: AAAaaagghhhh! (vacation, vacation, vacation...)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday he was optimistic there would be no U.S.-led war against Iraq.

Prince Saud told Reuters in an interview he hoped President Bush's willingness to work through the United Nations on Iraq would not only lessen the chance of war but remove it altogether.