The United States is preparing to establish immediate sole control of postwar Iraq, initially without recourse to the United Nations, with a civilian administration under the direct command of the military, according to senior administration officials.
| I'm hoping that's the concensus that's built up in Washington. Yeserday, Joe Lieberman was opining that it would be best if the UN just stayed the hell out... |
Even before American troops reach Baghdad, administration officials are assembling a team of civilian officials, largely retired American diplomats, to run Iraq as soon as the fighting is over.
| Retired... diplomats? That's a bad sign. A very bad sign... |
While the issue is debated endlessly at the United Nations and the European Union, the administration is going ahead with its plans for a civil peacekeeping operation under the direction of Jay Garner, the retired general who directs the Pentagon's new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. Mr. Garner arrived in Kuwait last week. He is overseeing the intense recruitment of his staff and preparing to administer Iraq under plans drawn up over the last two months. Senior officials are quick to say this arrangement is only temporary — lasting, they hope, no more than a few months — until an interim Iraqi government is in place. They also said they were still debating how to work with the United Nations when the time comes for that.
| I'd suggest a thumb pressed firmly to the end of the nose and four fingers wiggled, either together or in quick succession. Maybe with a side order of razzberries... |
The goal, according to an administration official, is to avoid a "bloated, inefficient civilian U.N. peacekeeping force," yet still encourage United Nations participation in postwar Iraq under the American administration.
| "What? No Food for Nooky Program? How can a proper UN Humanitarian® get by without the simple pleasures of life?" |
Richard H. Solomon, president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, has worked with the administration on the postwar Iraq plans and said that officials were caught between two goals. "This Pentagon doesn't want the military to get bogged down in extensive peacekeeping operations, but at the same time they don't want to make the classic American goof of winning a war and losing the peace," he said.
Good reason to keep the UN out. |