What therefore is the so-called “moral majority”?
If you get nine votes but are blocked by a veto or vetoes, you can claim a so-called technical or “moral majority”. It has no legal status but in this instance it would provide political cover for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. He would claim that the majority was “unreasonably” blocked. Countries which voted against a resolution or which vetoed it would say that there is nothing moral about it and nothing reasonable about ignoring it. Would war be illegal without a clear UN mandate? The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that he thinks it would break the UN charter. It is his job after all to defend the UN’s role. The US and UK, on the other hand, say that there is enough authority in previous resolutions, notably the last one, 1441, which said that if Iraq did not cooperate it could face “serious consequences.” Lawyers do not agree among themselves on this. The British and Americans also point to what happened in Kosovo in 1999 as a way of justifying action. That war was waged b
