The Administration cajoled poor countries with cheap Saudi oil and dangled arms packages before governments like Ethiopia and Colombia, whose access to US military support had been cut because of wars and human rights violations. U.S. diplomats went to China and said "name your price" to avert a veto – and then fulfilled Beijing's wish list for diplomatic rehabilitation and new development aid (a $114 million World Bank assistance package). China abstained. When Yemen, the only Arab country on the council, voted against the war, a US diplomat said, "That will be the most expensive 'No' vote you ever cast." Washington cut off its entire $70 million U.S. aid package to Yemen. This time around it was the impoverished island nation of Mauritius that emerged as the latest poster child for U.S. pressure at the UN. The ambassador, Jagdish Koonjul, was recalled by his government for failing to support the original U.S. draft resolution on Iraq. Why? Because US aid to Mauritius, requires that the recipient "does not engage in activities contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests." It looks as if almost every country on the Council made the pragmatic determination that if Washington goes to war, they want to be part of it. They may have little interest in actually participating, but they want to be on board the crusade. In the era of a sole superpower, being sidelined from an illegal pre-emptive war seems more dangerous than signing on to such a war.

For "Gulf Wars 2 – Clone of the Attack", Washington is at it again. The main prize, of course, is oil. The country has the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world—an estimated 112.5 billion barrels—trailing only Saudi Arabia. With growing concerns about the stability of the semi-feudal Saudi monarchy, the US administration is determined to seize control of Iraq.

The Iraqi opposition, a collection of royalists, wealthy exiles and ex-generals gathered in the Iraqi National Congress, have made clear their intention to transfer the lion’s share of Iraq’s rich oilfields to the US-based petroleum multinationals after a successful US war.

This threatens the interests of France, Russia and China. With half a dozen other countries, they have signed major contracts with the Iraqi regime to explore for petroleum or rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure. Most of these contracts are designed to take effect once the 12-year-old UN economic sanctions are lifted. The US State Department-sponsored Iraqi opposition have insisted that all of these contracts will be void, when and if the current regime is overthrown through a US invasion. Russia and France had extensive economic interests in Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

James Woolsey, the former CIA director stated: "It’s pretty straightforward, France and Russia have oil companies and interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq toward decent government, we’ll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and American companies work closely with them." He added, "If they throw in their lot with Saddam, it will be difficult to the point of impossible to persuade the new Iraqi government to work with them."

The most extensive initiatives have been taken in relation to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is widely believed that behind the scenes Washington is giving Moscow a green light to intensify its bloody repression inside Chechnya.

The US recently gave its support to Beijing’s crackdown on a separatist group in northwestern China, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. The State Department added the organization to its list of international terrorist groups, and the US backed China’s bid to have it placed on the UN’s terrorist list.

To placate Canadian public opinion, the US Air Force announced that two US fighter pilots had been charged with manslaughter and assault for killing four Canadian soldiers and wounding eight in a "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan last April. The two pilots dropped a 500-pound laser-guided bomb on Canadian troops near Kandahar. US officials have admitted that the pilots were not informed of the Canadians’ position in the field.

Turkey’s air bases at Diyarbakir and Incirlik are already being used in US-British air raids on Iraq. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has expressed concerns about an invasion’s impact on his country. Washington would suppress any move by Iraq’s Kurdish minority to create a separate state in Iraq’s north and would back Ankara’s military campaign against Turkey’s own Kurds. At least 30,000 Kurds have already died in the 17-year counterinsurgency campaign in eastern Turkey. Turkish military forces have long conducted raids into Iraq "in pursuit" of guerrillas affiliated to the PKK Kurdish separatist movement.

The Turkish regime needs US support for a US$16 billion credit approved by the International Monetary Fund and is seeking forgiveness on a US$5 billion debt to the US for weapons.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has pledged the monarchy’s support of a US invasion of Iraq if Washington obtained a resolution through the UN Security Council.

The Saudi prince said that his regime would act to stabilize world oil prices internationally if and when war is waged. The Saudis have reportedly discussed with Washington whether a post-Saddam regime in Baghdad would maintain its membership in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. If Washington chose to pull it out of OPEC, Iraqi production and pricing could ruin the economies of other oil producers.

In Pakistan, military ruler General Musharraf has been given a free hand by the US to consolidate his dictatorship. Musharraf introduced constitutional changes guaranteeing the military’s control of the government and blocking the country’s two most popular politicians from the polls, Bush made it clear that he was not concerned. "President Musharraf is still tight with us in the war against terror, and that’s what I appreciate," said the US president.

Other countries with temporary members on the Security Council have begun making their own demands, hoping to get concessions from Washington in return for a vote on an Iraqi intervention resolution. Mexican President Fox, usually a docile ally of Washington, made public statements complaining about the Bush administration’s failure to carry through on its promise to legalize the status of some three million Mexican workers in the US. Regularizing their status, he said pointedly, should be possible while continuing to wage the "war on terrorism."

It will hardly come as a surprise to see new US aid projects quickly assembled for Cameroon, Guinea and Mauritius, all small and impoverished African countries that happen to hold three of the 10 temporary seats on the Security Council.

At times like these the UN just seems to be a convenient apparatus for the imperialist US administration, in cahoots with other corrupt ruling class elites, to slaughter innocent people anytime, anywhere.