Mike C. tips me off to this one. Thanks, Mike!
The Bush administration has moved to drastically scale down a French-backed U.N. proposal to send more than 250 U.N. peacekeepers to the former French colony of Ivory Coast, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. The request to streamline the $25 million U.N. political mission comes just days after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said France would face consequences for leading opposition to war against Iraq. It marks the first major test of U.S.-French cooperation beyond Iraq at the United Nations since the war. U.S. officials said their decision was motivated by concerns for costs, a quarter of which would have to be shouldered by the United States, not revenge. They said the task could be achieved with a much smaller contingent of about 40 U.N. officials. And they asked the U.N. peacekeeping department to present a less ambitious proposal for the mission. "This has nothing to do with the perceived problem having to do with [France's position at] the United Nations," one U.S. official said. "It has to do with a bloated proposed mission that we believe needs to be scaled back."
| If we have to pay for a quarter of it, it would seem logical that we should have a say in its structure. Like most people, I don't have a lot of information on the ins and outs of the Ivory Coast situation — but I suspect that first you've got to find the peace before you can keep it. I doubt that 40 bureaucrats is the way to go, but 250 "peacekeepers" seems a bit light, too. A few regimental combat teams of Marines sweeping through Liberia and Burkina Faso is probably the only way to do it effectively. But that would be a unilateral approach, and probably "preemptive" in nature. And since Burkina Faso would be involved, we'd be "making war on innocent Muslims." And most of the Marines would be white, so we'd be racists, too. |
|