Weapons of Mass Distraction / Chris Toensing

Americans do appreciate the UN. Yet we saw in the immediate lead up to the war in the last two weeks the Bush Administration's final marketing strategy was to portray Bush as sort of a weary adult throwing up his hands in exasperation because he'd been unable to chaperone his recalcitrant teenage wards into the position that was for their own good, speaking of the security Council. And Americans seem to have, have bought that. Polls show that they seem to feel that the United States exhausted diplomatic alternatives and did everything it could to avoid resorting to military option that was not sanctioned by the relevant international body. And, and so we have this schizophrenia in American public opinion which ultimately can only be addressed through long-term public education both about, the potential value of international institutions and about the American history of flouting them.