U.S. says will not cede control of Iraq to U.N.

Reuters | 3/26/03

[kattracks]

U.S. says will not cede control of Iraq to U.N.

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - The United States will not cede control of Iraq to the United Nations if and when it overthrows President Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday.

"We didn't take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future," Powell told a House of Representatives subcommittee.

"We would not support ... essentially handing everything over to the U.N. for someone designated by the U.N. to suddenly become in charge of this whole operation," he added.

"We have picked on a greater obligation -- to make sure there is a functioning Iraqi government that is supported by the coalition, the center of gravity remaining with the coalition, military and civilian," he said.

Powell said the United Nations should, however, have a role in a post-Saddam Iraq, if only because it makes it easier for other countries to contribute to reconstruction costs.

"If we ask these nations to go get funds from their parliaments, it makes it a lot easier for them to get those funds and contribute those funds to the reconstruction effort ... if it has an international standing," he said.

The coalition is the Bush administration's term for the United States, Britain and the other minor contributors to the invasion of Iraq they launched last week.

The question of the U.N. role has come to the fore in the last few days because of debates in New York on the terms for releasing Iraqi oil money to pay for humanitarian relief.

The problem is expected to loom even larger if the United States takes control in Baghdad and then starts managing the Iraqi oil industry or seeking funds for reconstruction.

Washington will argue that as the victor it has the right to manage the transition to an Iraqi civilian government. Its opponents will say that the invasion was illegal and that the United Nations cannot endorse it retroactively.

Powell was speaking to the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

03/26/03 17:17 ET

[Dark Wing]

ping

[MizSterious]

Not at all alone. No doubt they're nervous about more than just losing their cash cow--there's also that little matter of what country and brand name might be on some of those arms and chemicals.

[nicmarlo]

The United States will not cede control of Iraq to the United Nations if and when it overthrows President Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell said...

Screw the UN, screw France, screw Germany, screw China and all their ilk.

[Swampmarine]

The new Powell Doctrine . . . Pay to Play!

[North Coast Conservative]

Irrelevant is the word of the day.

BUMP

In God We Trust…..Semper Fi

[RonF]

Who was the despot in Yugoslavia, my friend?

Tito.

Where is the analogy ...

The analogy is in that both Yugoslavia and Iraq are/were made up of mutually antagonistic ethnic groups. In Yugoslavia's case, the dissolution of civil authority caused these groups to attack each other based on hatreds kept alive through centuries. Iraq's groups have more recent hatreds than that to work with. It will take strong work to keep them from each other's throats, and many of them will be patient for years, or even a generation, until we leave.

[RhoTheta]

It would appear to me that although the UN has proven itself to be irrelevant, the US and UK need the political cover of not just baldly saying "screw you", as the UN has taken on a mysticism over the last 58 years. The French, and Kofi Annan, position is that we, the Coalition, are the "belligerants." Our official position is that the UN should be involved in administering humanitarian aid, and that the Security Council, and the UN in general, need to recognise, and legitimize, our efforts. If the UN continues to hold a hard line, they will appear more and more irrelevant, and our political cover will give us (the Coalition) more and more grass-root support to exit the UN and perhaps become a "Union of Democratic Nations" with the military power, GNP and moral relevancy to effectively proceed forward past the UN, as it languishes, un-funded, on the "ash heap of history."

[laz17]

THE CRIMINALS AT THE UN
& THE AXIS OF WEASELS

The criminals are getting desperate. The criminals who had sweet deals with Saddam, selling him weapons and all kinds of nasty stuff in exchange for oil. France, Germany, Russia, China, and the UN. Saddam's partners in crime. His aiders and abettors. His co-conspirators. They are demanding that the US and UK step aside after the war in Iraq and let them take over. They are trying desperately to keep the truth of their corruption and wickedness from being revealed. This cannot be permitted. Let the truth be known! Let the world see them for what they are -- Saddam's Whores!

There is no way in hell that Bush can allow Annan, Chirac, or any of the other criminals who made dirty deals with Saddam, to have anything to do with post-war Iraq. All they want to do is cover everything up. All they want to do is get their hands on the WMD, hide their complicity, and then pass the WMD on to terrorists. They cannot be trusted. They cannot be allowed to take possession of the WMD. This cannot be stressed more strongly. The depth of their corruption knows no bounds, and they cannot be permitted to pervert and destroy everything we and our coalition are accomplishing in Iraq with our blood.

Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac, and all the others who stood against the United States and Great Britain in the righteous cause of eliminating Saddam Hussein's evil and barbaric regime and liberating the people of Iraq, must not be allowed to have any participation in post-war Iraq. Their crimes must end with the fall of the regime. The coalition of the willing is disarming Iraq, and only the coalition of the willing must be responsible for what is done in post-war Iraq.

France, Germany, Russia, China,
and the UN=Saddam's Whores

Enough is enough. These criminals prohibited us from ridding the earth of Hussein back in 1991. And for the past twelve years, they have propped him up.

They sold him weapons and they sold him equipment.

They violated their own sanctions, and they smuggled contraband disguised as humanitarian aid.

They concocted the fiction of inspections not to disarm Hussein, but to give him cover and run interference for him while he turned his nation into a poison factory.

They NEVER had any intention of disarming him, and EVERY intention of using him as a proxy to wage war against the United States and Israel.

They signed on to Resolution 1441 never intending to actually enforce it, and when President George W. Bush forced their hand, they declared themselves as the bonafide enemies that they are. And now that the coalition of the willing led by President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair is doing the job that they refused to do, they are issuing threats and making demands. They insist that we wash our hands of the matter so, like the jackals they are, they can sink their teeth into the newly liberated Iraq not to help it in any way, but to cover their tracks, hide evidence of their crimes, take possession of the WMD, and distribute it to whomever they will.

This cannot stand. This cannot be allowed. The United Nations and the Axis of Weasels, who refused to fulfill their duty to humanity, have abrogated all rights to the future of liberated Iraq. They refused to do the heavy lifting, so they cannot be permitted to perpetrate this fraud. They have absolutely no right to what they claim. They had their chance, and they chose to slink away rather than lead. They cannot be allowed to slink their way back.

The United States of America and Great Britain have accepted the responsibilities of liberating Iraq and protecting the world from weapons of mass destruction, and they must not relinquish these responsibilities. Least of all to those who by their actions have revealed themselves to be unworthy of trust and unable to accept a position of leadership in this world. For their treachery, the traitor UN and the traitor nations must be rewarded with irrelevancy, for that is what they deserve.

[Naomi4]

Bush has picked a first rate team.

You gotta love Powell. Plain spoken and to the point. How refreshing. No parsing needed here.

[piasa]

The first thing we have to do once Baghdad is taken is get a mob of Sheeites to sack the French embassy.

What French embassy? All I see is smoke and rubble ....

;oD

[Russell Scott]

I have a good idea. All the Saddam loyalists, and Islamofacist, who can't stand living in a free Iraq, can have permanent citizienship in France or Germany. They would be doing us a huge favor, and getting "their kind of quality people" in return.

[429CJ]

"I hope that nobody in the Administration caves on this."

All Freepers need to e-mail the White House and let then know that we feel very strongly about this.

I already have.

[laz17]

Koffi Anon is a complete bastard.

Kofi Annan is a very evil and corrupt man. The only difference between him and Saddam is that Saddam's evil is clear to see while Annan wears an expensive suit and tie and pretends to be a soft-spoken international statesman. But Annan is just as much a gangster as Saddam. All of Saddam's defenders are.

[Paleo Conservative]

'The coalition is the Bush administration's term for the United States, Britain and the other minor contributors to the invasion of Iraq they launched last week.'

I guess sending troops like denmark, netherland, poland, australia, etc did is considered minor to Reuters.

I bet that Reuters article won't go over too well in those "minor" countries.

[Paleo Conservative]

What I would like to see is the United States immediately withdrawing from the UN after we achieve victory in Iraq.

Only if we form an organization of free countries. We still have a veto in the UN. If we left, it could become an organization plotting military attacks on the US.

[Rebelbase]

Beautifully said.

[RhoTheta]

See my #87, but excellent point. However, if the Coalition of the Willing became the United Democratic Nations, would we reduce our participation in the old UN to merely an obstruction to other nation's plotting? If the new coalition members (with their power and collective GNP) were to all pull out of the UN, wouldn't it then collapse from lack of support?

[Claire Voyant]

What;s with the "IF and when"!!! IF....IF???? Powell should NOT be saying IF.

[John Locke]

The United States will not cede control of Iraq to the United Nations if and when it overthrows President Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday.

In other words, To the Victor the Spoils. It seems President Bush has been reading his Roman history.

[CarmelValleyite]

Is this true??? If so, hooray!!!!