Annancement: Iraq Was an "Illegal" War

Kofi Annan has declared that the attack on Iraq by the United States (okay, the U.S. et al) was "illegal." Finally, someone speaks sense. Annan's in a tough spot as the secretary general of the United Nations, since he has to try to speak for the collective, not the warmongering individual states like, say, Congo or Russia or the United States. But this is dead right, and ought to hearten everyone who really believes in the rule of law. This category would not include the neocons, for whom rules are made to be sold. Though I'm too lazy to check, Annan's pronouncement probably generated the usual derision from the right, since it presumes that the U.N. ought to enjoy some sort of power to adjudicate and resolve international disputes. But true conservatives - those who've inherited the vision of men like Burke, Stimson, Wilkie, even the president's father and grandfather! - would see Annan as simultaneously *condemning* the U.S., the U.K., and the other states which went along to get along and, crucially, *affording* them an easy way back into the community of law-adiding nations. Just participating in the creation and enforcement of international law is enough to avoid becoming - what'd W call it back in the day? - a rogue state. Oddly enough, there happens to an oppportunity to do just that right now, in Darfur. But there's little to gain there for the neocons - neither oil nor glory - so I'm sure it's pretty far from the center of their radar screens.