>>I think the whole legal authority for the 'no fly zones' was wrapped in that and that included more thoroughgoing intervention.
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>>But of course international 'authorization' - like God - is on the side of the most artillery <s>
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>In this case it wasn't. France and Germany (most prominently) would not go along with UN authorization unless and until WMDs were found. When they were not found soon enough to suit the Bush administration, the U.S. invaded unilaterally.
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>In hindsight -- which of course is always easy -- I think the "go slow" nations were proven wise.

I dont recall seeing media reports of German and French pronouncments pre-invasion, but for the French... there was a French consortium running one of the Niger yellow cake mines and the other mine was flooded... information that Tenet and the CIA conveyed to the admin on at least 3 occasions. So at a minimum the French new that the niger bs was bs. Reports have indicated that the Germans considered curveball a known fabricator with mental issues, and that too was conveyed to our intel agencies. So they had reason to discount the sketchy intel that the admin was using as far as curveball was concerned.