Declare victory and run away?

When it comes to diplomacy and diplomats, trust nothing.

For instance, we would not bet the farm on any diplomatic triumph for the U.S. at the week's U.N. global conference on women. This is a periodic five-year followup to the original conference in Beijing in 1995.

The U.S. tried to push through an amendment stating that abortion is not considered, and will not be considered, a new international right for women. It also attempted to promote the idea that abstinence successfully combats AIDS. Both actions were loudly booed by delegates and "observers" (activists), many of whom were itching for a chance to do so. Here's what happened next:

After withdrawing an unpopular anti-abortion amendment from a key U.N. document, the United States joined in approving the declaration that reaffirmed a 150-page platform agreed 10 years ago at a landmark U.N. women's conference in Beijing.

Here's the spin by top U.S. delegate Ellen Sauerbrey:

"We think we have really accomplished what we set out to do," Sauerbrey said. "We have heard from countries ... that our interpretation is their interpretation. So the amendment we recognize is really redundant, but it has accomplished its goals. We will be withdrawing the amendment."

If you believe that, read on:

Despite U.S. lobbying, support for Washington's abortion stance was limited to the Vatican, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

Mary Ann Dantuono, the Vatican delegate, was interrupted by shouts when she said the Catholic Church "would have preferred a clearer statement emphasizing that the Beijing documents cannot be interpreted as creating new human rights including the right to abortion."

Delegates from the European Union, Asia and Africa forcefully opposed the U.S. position.

Do you still believe that this is a win for the pro-life position? Sounds more like we got whupped again at the U.N. (Not-so-Okay) corral.

Not to mention that in the end the U.S. voted to reaffirm the original document which asserts a woman's right to "control her own sexuality." This is code for obtaining abortions, not just who to date or sleep with.

Yeah, things turned out pretty much as usual. We lost.

Why are we still wasting time in the U.N.?