Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
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For war: US, UK, Spain, Bulgaria

Against: France, Russia, China, Germany, Syria

Who's left?

Angola, Mexico, Pakistan, Camaroon, Guinea and Chile.

Pakistan have indicated that they won't vote, that could mean that the pro-war boys need to get every last vote.

Now assuming that Angola, Camaroon, Guinea and maybe Chile can be bought, that could leave Mexico with the deciding vote.

Freedom beans with that gringo?

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Registered: Jul 2000
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The vote matters not.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
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quote:

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Originally posted by MstrG
The vote matters not.

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Registered: Aug 2001
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The vote will have operational significance, though, surely (who is going to help out, that sort of stuff, bases that you can use and so on)? Rumsfeld said (then retracted) that they have plans for going in without the UK, even, so I guess that it is fair to say that the vote and indeed UK support isn't something about which they are bothered (militarily, that is obvious, but politically it says that the US will go forward even if everyone opposes it). Unless Rumsfeld just made a clumsy slip or said for it for some other purpose (maybe he fancies Cherie Blair and thinks that he has to get her husband out of a job before he can have his wicked old man's way with her).

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Registered: Jul 2000
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I'm sure Blair would like the vote to go positively to save his hide, but the vote matters not when determining what happens. Yes, if someone vetos, or the count doesn't reach nine, we're still going in. The long term effects of this mess will be affected much, much more by what happens in the war than all the wrangling beforehand. I understand the dynamics very well.

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Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:

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Originally posted by MstrG
I'm sure Blair would like the vote to go positively to save his hide, but the vote matters not when determining what happens. Yes, if someone vetos, or the count doesn't reach nine, we're still going in. The long term effects of this mess will be affected much, much more by what happens in the war than all the wrangling beforehand. I understand the dynamics very well.

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Last edited by philjit on 03-12-2003 at 02:45 PM

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Registered: Jan 2002
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I should also add, that if the UN is all about 'Saving Blair' then why is it that in every single Question and Answer session with the public that Blair has taken part in on Live Television. It is he that has specifcally requested that the audience be made up of people hostile to his position. Those are not the acts of a man that is trying to secure his position at all costs.

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Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:

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Originally posted by MstrG
The vote matters not.

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Registered: Aug 2001
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The Times is a Rupert Murdoch paper. The best national papers for attempting honest reporting are The Independent and The Guardian, and even the Telegraph, I would say. Reading anything owned by Murdoch is pretty much a waste of time; it is the worst example of blinkered thinking In his case, to the political right), apart from when his business interests are involved.

I said before that I can't believe that Bush Sr would deliver advice to his son publically, unless he was frustrated that his son wasn't listening, privately. I can certainly believe that Bush Sr doesn't approve of Bush Jr's efforts at diplomacy, but I can't believe that he would express it like that, unless as I say he really can't get his son to listen. But having said that, one would assume that the words that are reported are true, and in that case most of the interpretation would seem to be pretty clear. What I would suspect is that there might be other words that ameliorate those other ones significantly, that are not reported. Else I trust that the US asylumites would have heard all about it, too?

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Registered: Sep 2001
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That link deserves it's own thread BP.

"Will the President of the United States of America listen to his daddy?"

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Registered: Jan 2002
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I see it is looking very likely that this vote will be pushed back until Monday. Keeping the diplomacy going to avoid a political vacuum without a doubt. Also note that Turkey is being visited this weekend by a US representative, new pro-american Prime Minister has just taken over there.

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Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:

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Originally posted by skalie
That link deserves it's own thread BP.

"Will the President of the United States of America listen to his daddy?"

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Baton Rouge
Posts: 1575

Didn't Saudi Arabia and other Arab states ties there cooperation (albeit passive) in a war against Iraq to UN authorization? That would make the vote matter quite a bit, no, to speak nothing of the remifications for Blair.

Leaky.

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