UN mustn't obstruct a new Iraq

New York Daily News ^ | 5/10/03

[kattracks]

If Iraq is to be rebuilt after decades of dictatorship and war, the United Nations must wake up to the fact that Saddam Hussein is no longer in charge, despite the worst intentions of his friends on the Security Council.

The United States, Britain and Spain have put forth a proposal to give Iraq back to the Iraqis. The plan: Appoint a UN coordinator to work with the allied powers and use Iraq's oil revenues to rebuild the country and deliver humanitarian aid.

That can't happen, though, until the sanctions put in place after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 are dropped. And that means also phasing out the oil-for-food program that was run for the benefit of Saddam and his French and Russian buddies.

If the UN wants to prove that it has not - as many believe - become irrelevant, it had better get on board with the plan. Having tried mightily to impede the effort to free Iraq, the least it could do now is help rebuild the country.

The allied proposal would lift sanctions, establish economic, humanitarian and funding arrangements, restore Iraq to the Iraqis as quickly as possible and determine the role of the UN.

If they have any sense, France and Russia and the rest will come along. They had no problem with Iraq when it was governed by a murderous maniac, so why would they oppose a free and democratic Iraq? Answer: Money. Their inside edge in Iraqi oil deals would dry up, along with the profits. But that's a moot issue anyway. With Tommy Franks running things in Baghdad, those old deals are already history.

Washington tried to work with the UN in confronting Saddam and made an honest effort to rally support. But when the diplomats, led by France, put up roadblock after roadblock, President Bush and the coalition went ahead and did the job without them.

Next week, the Security Council will take up the Iraq resolution. It is extremely gracious of the allies to offer the UN a place in postwar Iraq. If the diplomats blow the chance, Bush and the coalition should go ahead and do the job without them.

Duane Reade loves N.Y.?

Seventy people from the Rockaway peninsula were killed in the 9/11 attacks. Their families and friends and neighbors started constructing a memorial to the lost in a new Tribute Park in Rockaway Beach. Then Duane Reade began building a pharmacy adjacent to the small park and erecting a 400-square-foot illuminated billboard facing the memorial. Some people were not pleased.

Among them was artist Patrick Clark, who is designing the monument. He fears the sign's floodlights will overshadow and diminish the memorial - a stone gazebo with a dome of faceted glass to be lighted until midnight every night. Exercising his right to free speech, he took out an ad in the community newspaper, The Wave, urging a boycott of Duane Reade until the sign is removed. Duane Reade's response? It's suing Clark and The Wave for defamation.

The company says it is an "enthusiastic supporter" of and has made substantial donations to the project. Commendable - but it risks washing any good will down the drain. Surely it has better ways to spend time and money than to fight the First Amendment.

For example, the firm could learn a bit more about the memorial it so enthusiastically supports. According to the plaintiff, the memorial will honor the victims of 9/11 "as well as ... passengers killed in the crash of TWA Flight 800." Huh? The plane that crashed in Rockaway in November 2001 was American Airlines Flight 587. And in any case, the memorial has nothing to do with that tragedy.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, representing Clark, says the lawsuit has no merit. The drugstore giant should smarten up and drop the case. Punishing someone for speaking out, muffling public opinion, isn't the best prescription for maintaining customer loyalty.

Pachyderm packed it in

From Reuters: Koala, a female elephant in the Rio de Janeiro Zoo, lost some 1,100 pounds in about four months without any exercise after peanuts and bread were completely taken out of her diet and her ration of bananas was halved to just 120 a day.

Now that's a diet with a peel.

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Originally published on May 10, 2003

[Joe Boucher]

Keep the U.N. and the weasels out of our business in Iraq and keep this pathetic soicalist group out of the U.S.