The war finally broke out when scores of cruising missiles were fired from the US warships on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf on March 20. As a war, it is doomed to having no winners.

For a long time, members of the United Nations had appealed to a peaceful solution to the Iraqi issues within the political framework. However, the US and the UK bypassed the UN and launched the war unilaterally when seeing little chance to be authorized by the UN.

When the missiles roared on the way to Baghdad, the UN's position, function and prestige were under severe challenges.

Emerging from unprecedented anti-war protests, the war is widely opposed by millions of people throughout the world chanting anti-war slogans such as "No Blood For Oil", "Peace, No War" and "Give Peace A Chance".

The world's hope for peace was then dashed by the US.

There has been little suspicion for the result of the war in military terms, as the world's only superpower deployed over 200,000 well-equipped soldiers to the country whose military power had been shrunk to a great extent under a 12-year-old sanction. But this doesn't mean the US would be the winner.

Iraq and the entire Middle East have been a long-time unstable area where various sorts of contradiction exist. If the US could remove the Iraqi regime, it couldn't remove the area's deep-rooted problems, the US may even make it worse.

Without the UN's authorization, the legality of this war has come to be under suspicion."If some countries began their actions without the UN's authorization, they would not be supported politically and their actions would have no legal status."the UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan said.

The Iraqi War turned the US into an illicit citizen under the International Law，the image of　the US is tarnished.

The US is shaping a new political framework in the Middle East by its missiles now, but is at the same time alienating the world including some of its traditional allies. It's another setback for the US.

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