Posted on 04/08/2003 7:01:34 AM PDT by conservativecorner
As Secretary of State Colin Powell and others in the Bush administration have been saying this week, the United Nations has only a limited role to play in the reconstruction of postwar Iraq. President Bush has tried to convince Tony Blair of this in Northern Ireland Monday and today. The prime minister, who has a soft spot for the U.N., ought to concur.
The reasons have nothing to do with pique. They have everything to do with political ends: a free and independent Iraq, with a stable, democratic, pluralistic government. Since Iraqis themselves have the most at stake, they should be the ones to have the most say in developing and implementing the institutions of democracy.
The U.N.'s imprimatur will do nothing to ensure free Iraq's democratization. Nor will it spare Tony Blair the wrath of the antiwar left- wingers in Britain's Labor Party.
The U.N. failed miserably for 12 years to disarm Iraq and halt Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses. Placing Iraq's fate in the hands of France and Russia, both of whom cynically propped up Saddam's murderous regime with billions of dollars in cash and weapons, would be throwing Iraqis to the wolves. Both nations agreed to Security Council Resolution 1441, then vetoed the military consequences of Saddam's lies and deceptions. The result is that America is shedding blood and tears, and a significant chunk of its economy, to finish what should have been dealt with 12 years ago. Paris and Moscow, and to a lesser extent Berlin, are pitching for a U.N. role now in part because they are desperate to keep in liberated Iraq the oil concessions they were granted by Saddam.
Jacques Chirac, in particular, has sponsored Saddam for almost 30 years, much in the same way France itself has protected the petty dictators of its former colonial-era possessions in Africa. The oil in Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people and as such it should fund the country's reconstruction without any interference from either the French or Russians.
The U.N. could help with the humanitarian work in Iraq, especially in the areas of food, health care and refugees. But its many ignominious failures in such places as Cambodia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Somalia disqualify it from any major participation in peacekeeping, facilitating an interim administration, or promoting human rights and the rule of law.
The task of eventually handing off to a provisional Iraqi government is fraught with difficulties, as Bush and Blair must know. A plan that includes Iraqis both inside and outside of Iraq, free of the influences of Saddam's Baathist Party, is taking shape. Whatever its final form, many in the leadership of the main Iraqi opposition believe the chances for success are greater without U.N. meddling precisely because the world body is hostage to the ideological and mercenary ends of its members.
The United States is fighting this war to protect itself, disarm Iraq and deliver Iraqis from tyranny. If all goes well, it might also provide the Middle East with a model of liberalization and democracy. It is not sacrificing American lives for the sake of the U.N. Security Council.
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