This is becoming a farce, and it's the scenario both the White House and Whitehall wanted to avoid..
What Iraq has sparked is a reorganization within the ranks of the EU.. and NATO.. and indeed the very concept of what constitutes 'The West'.. Russia's now threatening to use it's UN Veto to scupper the 2d Iraq Resolution.. that puts Russia and France and Germany in an agressive stance concerning particularly the US, but coincidentally Britain.. sets the stage for what France would desperately like to see.. an European hegemony which could concievably rival the economic clout of the US..
An European hegemony in which France plays a pre-eminent role..
So while the various motk's around the globe have been fired.. infused with one or the other stance on the Middle East.. the reality is that the global population is being visibly manipulated into assuming emotional arguments in a situation that hithertofor would have been purely politically driven..
Certainly the average citizen of this world cannot pretend to understand the machinations of government in the Middle East.. even the diplomats there train in the subtleties of negotiation, prevarication, and appeasement for decades before they're allowed to open their mouths in public.. We in the west.. generally forthright and open.. cannot seem to get our minds around the differences between societies.. We are saddled with a sense of guilt for our own success.. a sense of somehow failing the rest of the world because we did it better and faster.. a willingness to decry our own perspective and assume another must be at least partly right..
We're a particularly self-destructive group we are..
And those in the East can see this.. They know, given enough time, we'll argue ourselves from a position of strength to one of weakness.. if only to 'let the little guy win for once'..
The East has learned patience.. It's obvious to anyone that this society of ours cannot last, that it will tear itself apart like a machine.. once well-oiled and tended and now left to run at full speed, reviled and kicked into a corner..
We will destroy this enlightened west of ours, ourselves.. all we need is time.. and those who oppose us are only too willing to give us all that's necissary..