Jinn of Current Events

The Washington Post quotes a Marine comparing the first two days of the war -- in which U.S. forces sped across the Iraqi border from Kuwait to seize key objectives -- to a drive-by shooting. Many US Marines refer to their procession north as the Baghdad 500. Only one hundred miles to go. 

There are 45 countries in the coalition of the willing, supporting the war to liberate Iraq. In Europe, 21 countries are openly supporting the US-led military action. Four of the G7 countries, the freest and most powerful economies in the world, are the two main protagonists and two outspoken supporters: the USA, the UK, Japan, and Italy.

So, what does the word "unilateral" mean? The literal definition is: one-sided. It's opposed to "bilateral" (two parties agreeing to a common view or action), "multilateral" (having more than two parts), and "universal" (including all). Clearly, the liberation of Iraq that we are witnessing is multilateral, a coalition led by the USA and UK, not an operation involving only one country. Anyone clinging to the word "unilateral" in this context is either ignorant or dishonest. 

WSJ: Those who think the Iraq war is about oil ought to consider a different possibility--that the war might have been avoided if France and Russia, lured by the promise of [extraordinaly lucrative] Iraqi petroleum deals, had not steadily fed Saddam Hussein's belief that he could outlast the U.S. in the sanctions war.