>>We are THE superpower and don't need the UN's authorization.
I reside in a country that has never spawned wars ;-) but has generally been on the "right side" in doing its tiny best to help out. Yes, Europe can maintain its pacific state only because the US has maintained its superpower status. Yes, I can see how that must grate a little.
But IMHO you need the UN, and the members of it, if you want to reduce your military presence in Iraq any time soon.
Finally, there is a label for the biggest boy in the playground who decides he can do as he pleases just because he is the biggest. Don't go there.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
