In an interview published in yesterday's Guardian, Richard Perle said, "These five countries, the permanent members of the Security Council, are not a judicial body. They're not expected to make moral or legal judgments, but to advance the respective interests of their countries.

"So if the French ambassador gets up and expresses the position of the government of France, what you are hearing is the moral authority of Jacques Chirac, whatever that may mean.

"What you're hearing is what the French President perceives to be in the interests of France."

Well, the U.S. is also one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Isn't Perle saying that it's foolish to expect the U.S. to be making moral or legal judgments in the current situation? Isn't he implicitly saying that the U.S., too, is merely acting in its own interest?

If so, then all this talk about ridding the world of terrible weapons and freeing enslaved people and advancing democracy and freedom is a crock. And Richard Perle said so.