A rchive Date
[ 12-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.N ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/stanway.html
Count on UN to screw up the peace
By PAUL STANWAY -- Edmonton Sun
April 12, 2003
And so it begins. The UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq has accused the United States of violating the Geneva Convention for "allowing" armed looters to strip Baghdad's Kindi hospital and other medical centres.
This is the sort of Monty Pythonesque nonsense that requires a columnist to insert a sentence to the effect that you're not making this stuff up, and to remind readers that it is April 12 and not April 1. It's right up there with last month's revelation that if the regime of Saddam Hussein could hang on until May it would automatically inherit the chairmanship of the UN's disarmament organization.
No one with even a limited grip on reality envied the Americans the dirty job of removing Saddam Hussein on behalf of powerless Iraqis, but it's the peace, the fruits of the stunning American military success, which I wouldn't want to wish on my worst enemy. (Not that Jacques Chirac would be up for the job anyway.)
The poor Yanks. If they thought all the hostility to a three-week war was about as helpful as somebody dropping ants into your underwear, they are really going to be bugged by all the second guessing, finger pointing and "we told you so's" during the reconstruction of Iraq - which will take, what, five years? Ten?
Chief among America's tormentors will, of course, be the UN. It's already apparent that the role of the UN in the New World Order will be to take American money, oppose the U.S. at every turn, and totally ignore its mandate of supporting international stability, human rights and good government.
No, wait a minute, that's what it's been doing for the past 40 years.
I may have missed it, but I don't remember the UN bombing Saddam with a smart press release over the mistreatment of American and British prisoners of war, but the UN has suddenly dusted off its copy of the Geneva Convention so that it can blame Washington for a group of gun-toting Iraqis looting their own hospitals. "The coalition forces seem to be unable to restrain the looters or impose any sort of controls on the mobs that now govern the streets."
The UN appears to see no contradiction in, on the one hand, arguing that the U.S. has no business in Iraq, which the Iraqis are well able to run on their own - but just in case some Iraqis do behave like bandits it can only be because the Americans are not cracking down on armed civilians.
Of course, if American troops did tackle armed looters and anyone got hurt, that, too, would be the fault of the criminal invader.
In a small way this illustrates to perfection the difficulties the Americans now face. Those who opposed the war will surely oppose the peace just as vigorously, if not more so.
Anyone who believes that those who predicted another Vietnam, another Stalingrad, a botched military operation, a bloody "quagmire" and a heroic defence by "elite" forces who were just waiting for the right moment - any minute now - to inflict enormous losses on the dumb Yanks, will now politely shut up are going to be very disappointed. Crow is not part of their diet.
They have not missed a beat in shifting from opposing the invasion, criticizing the war - and now confidently predicting that the peace will be the mother of all humanitarian and political disasters. No possible mistake, miscue or problem will be left unturned, because the antiwar, anti-peace, anti-whatever movement is at its heart simply anti-American. Whatever the Americans do is suspect, wrong, immoral and part of some plot to grab Iraqi oil.
Ah, yes, the oil. Common sense suggests there will be difficulties, mistakes in reconstruction, just as there were in the conduct of the war.
But the smart money has to be on the Americans winning the peace, and all that Iraqi oil is going to be the major reason. Iraq is not Afghanistan. It took the incompetence of Saddam's police state to wreck Iraq's oil-rich economy, which will now be directed by the world's best economic managers looking to make a political point. Don't bet against them making it.
The UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq informed me yesterday that it has no office and no personnel in Iraq and was "not really sure" whether it employed any actual Iraqis.
I think that about says it all.
Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@edm.sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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