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What Role for The UN in Postwar Iraq? |
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© 2003 Newspaper Enterprise Assn. |
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by |
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William Rusher |
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April 10, 2003 |
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The United Nations may think America's war against Iraq is "illegal" because we didn't get their permission to wage it, but it sure didn't take them long to make a grab for the lion's share of the postwar action, did it? And I'm not talking about aid to refugees or other humanitarian projects that the United Nations has demonstrated some marginal competence in administering. To borrow a phrase from the anti-war protestors, this is all about oil. Iraq is capable of producing about $20 billion worth of the stuff a year. A large share of that income is predictably – and rightly – going to be spent, for years to come, to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and economy after 20 years of Saddam Hussein (who squandered most of it on his palaces) and the inevitable devastation of war. But that raises the delicate question: Who, precisely, is going to get those lucrative reconstruction contracts? Since Iraq is about to be conquered and occupied largely by American forces, the first post-Saddam regime will be a military one, headed by CentCom's Gen. Tommy Franks. It has already been arranged that he will appoint a civilian governor to get the country going again. It is estimated that it will be at least six months thereafter, and perhaps a good deal longer, before this functionary will be able to turn things over to a consortium of democratic-minded Iraqis, who in turn will draft a constitution and lead the way to free elections and a democratic society. The key decisions on construction contracts and the like will thus be made by these successive administrative apparatuses – unless, that is, the United Nations and its admirers (notably the French) manage to muscle into the process at some point and seize control of the contract-distributing power. This scheme is loftily described as "turning the postwar administration of Iraq over to the United Nations" – the only thing (we are told) that can convert America's "illegal" conquest of Iraq into an internationally acceptable regime. With any luck, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan should thereafter be able to sluice into the pockets of French businessmen almost as big a chunk of Iraq's foreign trade as they enjoyed – thanks to President Jacques Chirac – in the good old days of Saddam Hussein. Fortunately, President Bush has shown no signs of being ready to acquiesce in this rip-off. America carried the can for Iraqi freedom when Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac were doing their level best to guarantee Saddam Hussein another 20 years in power, and there is not the slightest reason why American companies shouldn't get the contracts in question – with all their downstream benefits, including American jobs and taxes. To be sure, British Prime Minister Tony Blair favors giving the United Nations a big role in the postwar reconstruction of Iraq – a gesture that would greatly mollify the domestic and European critics whose wrath he incurred by standing loyally by the United States on the issue of the war. We owe Tony Blair a good deal, but we have already gone the extra mile with him on many issues (e.g., seeking a second Security Council resolution when none was needed, and then failing to get it), and no doubt there are British businesses fully capable of participating in the reconstruction of Iraq. But I fail to see why our friend Chirac should get anything out of it but the Roquefort cheese concession at Baghdad's al Rashid Hotel. The truth is that the United Nations' prospects as a supranational lawgiving entity were mortally wounded when it turned itself into a doormat for France's attempt to cripple the American superpower, of which France is furiously jealous. Let the United Nations demonstrate what it can do with the numerous humanitarian problems awaiting its attention in Iraq, and in that way live down its current reputation as Jacques Chirac's poodle. ************************************************ William Rusher is a Distinguished Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. If you wish to write to Mr. Rusher, you can contact him c/o United Media; Editorial Dept., 4th Floor; New York, N.Y. 10016. |
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