Bush isolated as speech to UN falls flat: "'No one can act alone in the name of all and no one can accept the anarchy of a society without rules,' [Chirac] said. 'The war, launched without the authorisation of the security council, shook the multilateral system. The UN has just been through one of the most grave crises in its history.'
... Earlier the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, condemned the doctrine of preemptive military intervention, arguing that it could lead to the unjustified "lawless use of force" and posed a "fundamental challenge" to world peace and stability.

"My concern is that, if it were to be adopted, it could set precedents that resulted in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without credible justification," said Mr Annan. "This logic represents a fundamental challenge to the principles on which, however imperfectly, world peace and stability have rested for the last 58 years."

The Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who also spoke before Mr Bush, said: "A war can perhaps be won single-handedly. But peace - lasting peace - cannot be secured without the support of all."
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- posted by geoff @ #