Not as optimistic about the role of the UN as is Tom Friedman

=======
Friedman writes:

The tension that is now rising within the Western alliance, NATO and the U.N. over how to deal with Iraq is deeply disturbing. It raises fears that the postwar security system, which stabilized the world for 50 years, could come unglued if America intervenes alone in Iraq. At the birth of this security system, Secretary of State Dean Acheson wrote a memoir titled "Present at the Creation." Can we deal with Iraq and still ensure that Secretary of State Colin Powell's memoir is not titled "Present at the Destruction"?

Yes, we can — if we, the Russians, the Chinese and the French all take a deep breath, understand our common interests and pursue them with a little more common sense and a little less bluster.
=======
NATO was founded as an alliance to oppose the Soviet Union. The USSR is now gone and NATO is really an organization without a purpose. The war in Bosnia against the Serbians was the only time NATO went into combat and it was loaded with infighting about how to proceed. And this past week, when asked to act on Turkey's request for help, it was unable to act. Some structure should supercede NATO. As for the UN, they will have to fish or cut bait soon in regards to Iraq or face irrelavance.