n February 5, 2003, the United States made a case against Iraq in the United Nations Security Council. The American government argued that Iraq had breached the UN Resolution 1441 repeated times, and had failed to disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction. At the time, President Bush had said publicly that should the UN decide not to punish Iraq for its behavior, the American forces were prepared to go to war alone. These declarations, however, did not seem to find sympathetic ears within the United Nations. A number of countries, including those with the power to veto any proposal to go to war with UN backing, believed that following a policy that gave more time for the inspectors to investigate was the proper course of action. In fact, it was widely believed in the media and among international observers that the UN would never back a preemption plan against Iraq. In other words, it could be said that the United States chose to address the United Nations council, even though the American government was aware that it would be quite difficult, if not impossible, to convince the United Nations to go along with the preferred American policy. Why would the United States choose to address the UN at all? Notice that I′m not asking why the US went to War in Iraq. I am asking about going to the UN. Answer this question using the two first theories we covered: Realism and Liberalism. Use their lenses and tell me how each of the theories would explain the exact same behavior in similar or differing ways. Notice that you are analyzing the behavior of the United States alone. Do not speculate on the reasons behind French, Russian or Chinese policy. Also, in explaining American behavior do not make categorical statements without some reference. Your paper should not include your opinions or speculations on the subject matter that cannot be substantiated. For example, the following sentence would not be appropriate: Bush did not care about anything but oil. He took his case to the United Nations merely as a farce to hide his true intentions. One cannot get inside Bush’s head, and therefore, one cannot know what his true intentions were then or now. This statement would be mere speculation. Also, remember, you are supposed to be using a theoretical lens. So if you wrote: Bush truly loves America and he was only looking out for Americans’ well-being. In fact, Bush hates war. He only came to it as a last resort, but took it to the United Nations because he knew that he could get his friends to help him. You are also claiming that you can get inside his head, and more problematically, you would not be using any of the theoretical lenses, because neither realism nor liberalism thinks that morality is the main reason why states do what they do. They do things out of self-interest, and while it might just happen to be moral at times, they do not do it because they think it moral. Also, neither realism nor liberalism are leader-centric, but state-centric. They do not do things because of the leaders they have (i.e. Bush), they do things because of states’ interests.