This is unlikely to happen. There are good reasons why the U.S. lost, quite apart from Chinese or Cuban malice. Three years ago, under precisely similar circumstances, tiny New Zealand was bullied into standing down from the U.N.'s budget committee to make way for a defeated U.S. candidate. In return, Washington promised that the arrears of some $1.5 billion would be paid. They have not been.

At the end of last year, that money still unpaid, U.S. Ambassador Holbrooke secured a reduction in U.S. assessments in return for payment of some, and eventually all of the arrears. Almost half a year later, with no check in sight, last week a House Committee vote to remove the Bush-imposed restriction on abortion counseling by international agencies that get U.S. family planning aid led to yet another predictable call by some congressmen to hold up the long, long overdue payment.

Defenders of human rights who think the U.S. is being punished for its firm principles will have to explain to the rest of the world why Cuba can do no right, but Israel can do no wrong, as far as U.S. delegations are concerned. European envoys are quite prepared to support investigations of human rights violations in Cuba, but not as part of a feud ultimately engineered by unsavory Cuban exile groups in Florida. They are often prepared to temper the excesses of the Arab rhetoric against Israel, but they cannot, unlike the United States, bring themselves to give a blanket veto in support of Ariel Sharon, the man who, until he won the last Israeli election, was remembered best as the architect of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and as the facilitator of the massacres of Sabra and Shatila.

Of course, the U.S. has no monopoly on hypocrisy, as a quick glance over France's record on Iraq or Morocco and Western Sahara, would establish. However, Washington does have a near-monopoly on arrogance and insouciance to what other countries think. To blame the American defeat on maneuvers by totalitarian countries overlooks the much more impressive and consistent human rights voting record of Sweden, which won more votes than the U.S.

So what can be done? A little more self-criticism and a lot less self-righteousness would go a long way. The incident reveals the weaknesses not just in the American position, but also in the very mechanisms of American diplomacy. Our envoys are seen as one-way emissaries, bearing ultimatums from Congress to the rest of the world. Somehow the mechanism needs refining so that the positions of other countries, especially allies, are taken into account, and given at least as much weight as those of domestic lobbies in the formulation of foreign policy.

Until that happens, the United States will continue to delude itself that it alone is right, and the rest of the world wrong, on issue after issue. We can only hope that occasional reality checks, like this defeat, make some people look again at our foreign policy, and realize that alliances are reciprocal relationships.

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