A U.N. Surprise

[kskiska]

The United Nations has tiptoed back into Iraq and the good graces of the Bush White House. These surprising developments are worth two cheers and one big, ominous question mark.

It is hard not to be impressed by the skill and audacity that led to a secretive six-day mission to Iraq last week by Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat who is Secretary General Kofi Annan's top troubleshooter. Getting the 70-year-old Arab nationalist to go to occupied Iraq required intense White House wooing, including two sessions with President Bush.

The imperatives that drove Bush's interest were more immediate than repairing relations with the United Nations, though that was seen as a bonus. Brahimi, it was hoped, had the credibility and standing to get through to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The reclusive Shiite religious leader disrupted the administration's original transition plans by demanding direct elections before the promised June 30 transfer of sovereignty.

Bush is pressing aides to make sure that the sovereignty deadline is met even if other details of the transition plan have to be altered. Sistani's still-vague indications that he would accept a U.N. recommendation to hold elections later than June 30 triggered the administration's new outreach to Annan and his U.N. staff in January.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49529-2004Feb17.html

[DenverDem]

1. Transition on June 30="Mission Accomplished"

Meaningless on the ground in Iraq. Just politricks for the sheeple back home.

[fearnobush]

2. I predict civil war by April.

You can't force chrony capitalism down peoples throats.

[PsychoDad]

5. Any resistance to what the US wants

Will be painted as a "civil war".

[UpInArms]

3. so how soon will our troops

get their notices that they will be coming home?

because until they do, all this is utter meaningless bullshit.

bring them home or shut the F*** up

[orwell]

4. The UNpresident

"The imperatives that drove Bush's interest..."

"Bush is pressing aides..."

The implication here is that Bush is "hands on", "engaged", "calling the shots..."

Another breathtaking example of stealth propaganda spoon fed to the illiterati. I suspect AWOL's more wrapped up in the details of the Alex Rodriguez trade than he is in the political implosions in Iraq.

Onward Christian soldiers...

[AliceWonderland]

6. I really don't like this development

because I know where it's leading. It's been obvious from square one: an untenable political/social/economic situation will get handed off to the UN, in terms of responsibility. Iraq, due to the last few decades of structural violence combined with an invasion/occupation, is not going to "transition" smoothly in a matter of months. How can anyone impose something as absurd as a SOVEREIGNTY DEADLINE? WTF does that even mean, please?

When there's a situation of deep structural violence, it can take years, decades, to rebuild from the bottom up... and that's only after the immediate causes of structural violence are eliminated.

So what do we get? A further weakened UN -- and while that doesn't bother me so much per se, it means a further weakening of the concept of multilateralism in the international arena. A Bush Cabal that can crow that it was the UN's fault the "transition" failed. And when the failure comes, the need for a "new and improved" solution.

Ugh.