THE HIGH COST OF UN DIPLOMACY may end up being measured in the loss of American lives as sandstorms complicate the advance into Baghdad, affect delicate equipment and provide additional cover for movement of the Feydayeen Saddam. Advocates of the UN approach in the punditocracy like Tom Friedman who is e-mail debating Andrew Sullivan on the topic need to explain how the UN provides any kind of moral sanction when key members of the Security Council - France, Russia and China - have negotiated in bad faith from the inception. The recent revelations of direct Russian and French military aid to the Iraqis via corporations and dummy companies demonstrates clearly the flaw in using the UN for any problem where there does not already exist a strong consensus among the great powers. The UN is a tool to pursue national interests and house international aid organizations and little else. To view the UN as a repository of inherent moral authority not possessed by its member states that comprise it is foolish romanticism - a myth that now could fill body bags.  ¶ 8:54 AM