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| Iraq |
| Group wants UN to help set up interim civil administration |
| 2003-02-25 |
| Four prominent Iraqi figures, including two former ministers, have appealed to the UN Secretary-General to initiate Security Council moves to establish an interim civil administration in Iraq, should the Iraqi regime collapse or be overthrown. The four Iraqis who issued the appeal are former Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan al-Babjaji, former Industry and Economy Minister Adib al-Jader, economist and former UN official Mahdi al-Hafez, and respected economist and publisher Walid Khaddouri. âWe call on the Security Council to adopt our legitimate request for the benefit of our people and to establish an interim Iraqi government by cooperating with a special UN mission in the framework of a timetable leading to a democratically elected government,â said the statement. The suggestion that the Arab states occupy Iraq after we knock it over was a non-starter, so this is Plan B: Let the U.S. spend the men and money, then have the UN step in and take over, so they can have something ineffectual, along the lines of KFOR. Since the UN as a body doesn't appear to be doing the work to get rid of Sammy, I can't see any reason for any UN involvement at all when the war's over. Jader told the Daily Star in a telephone interview from Geneva on Monday that they issued the appeal due to the imminent threat of an invasion of Iraq. He said Iraqis would view a long-term American presence as an occupation that would be rejected, saying instead that the idea of a joint UN-Iraqi interim administration would be for the benefit of all, including Iraq, its neighbors, the USA, and the UN. âIraqis will be more willing to cooperate with the UN than with an American administration,â he said. I'm sure the Fritzies were trying to come up with some alternative to being occupied after WWII. Somehow, they managed... The four said an interim administration and UN agencies should âprepare themselves to supply humanitarian aid to the citizens and help them overcome the forthcoming hardships.â Ewww. That camel's nose is all runny... The four had previously issued an appeal on Feb. 13 calling on the Iraqi leadership to step down to avert the âdisastrous consequences of war.â Worked well, didn't it? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #4 All of the above: 1. have no power or authority. 2. are not representative of the peoples of Iraq. 3. are probably not electable, assuming that they believe in democracy. 4. probably are more interested in recovering booty, confiscated by the Saddamites, than in liberating Iraq. 5. are power rivals, rather than ideological enemies, of SH. 6. are chronic whiners who should move to France. |
| Posted by: Anon 2003-02-25 19:42:34 |
| #3 Once Saddam and his bad-boy apparatus is eliminated, we need to get Iraq right in order to change the other bad neighbors. The UN will not be the ones to do it. I can think that those countries who signed their names to letters of support would be excellent candidates for the effort, along with the US. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-02-25 16:39:50 |
| #2 LH, Interesting post. It makes me wonder if part of our dismal dance at the UN is to get them to veto the final resolution so that we can effectively cut them out of the picture in the post-Saddam world. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2003-02-25 16:10:08 |
| #1 the reason for UN involvement: 1. Free up US troops for elsewhere 2. Get additional sources of funding (assuming the oil rigs have been blown and so outside money is needed) 3. Most important - when something goes wrong during the occupation - and something certainly will at some point - a blown up wedding party or whatever - sahre the blame, give us cover - its the UN occupation, not US colonialism and their not bad at the nitty gritty administrative stuff - theyve done at least as well in Cambodia, East Timor, etc as we did in Haiti. OTOH - they WIIL have their own agenda on Iraqi politics - likely to me more pro Saudi, and thus pro-Sunni arab, and ex-baathist, than our agenda. And they may well get in the way of our regional agenda for democracy promotion. So its a difficult decision, not at all clear to me we dont want at least some UN involvement in the post-war. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-02-25 12:03:48 |