I’m groping in the dark, desperately looking for some reason here.

The only rational explanation I’ve been able to come up with is that the US (or, more specifically, the Bush administration) has written off the UN. We’ll continue to belong and play the game only insofar as it suits our interests, one of which may be the appearance of playing the game — then we’ll apologetically do our own thing (hopefully in spades) irrespective of what the UN says.

Brian