Seattle PI/Helen Thomas: Saying U.N. backed war doesn't make it so

[Raster]

By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- President Bush may try to fool the American people with his repeated claim that he invaded Iraq to pursue a "war on terrorism" but he should not try that spin on the world leaders at the United Nations. They know better.

Americans do, too. We don't have such short memories that we've forgotten how the Bush administration previously declared that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction required an invasion.

Bush, who has run out of excuses for the war, now wants everyone to believe that the United Nations gave him the go-ahead to invade Iraq when the world body passed a resolution warning there would be "serious consequences" if Saddam Hussein did not disarm and give weapons inspectors free rein in Iraq.

"The commitments we make must have meaning," he told the U.N. General Assembly last week. "When we say serious consequences for the sake of peace, there must be serious consequences."

But the U.N. resolution gave him no mandate for war.

<snip, more -- Go, Helen Go!>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192647_thomas28.html