Sensible Canadian
Really nice commentary from David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen:The rebuilding of Iraq -- which necessarily involved the removal of the totalitarian dictatorship of Saddam Hussein --has been U.S. policy continuously. And so has been the U.S. appeal for help. They didn't get much of it for the invasion, they are still hoping for more in the après-guerre.As Mr. Bush affirmed yesterday, this is a U.S.-led project. It cannot be otherwise -- no one else volunteered for the job. Politically, the Bush administration must take the lion's share of credit for what is being achieved in Iraq -- there are few saints in high political office. But then it deserves the credit, from doing the lion's share of the work.
As he also hinted, there would be no point in muttering ungraciously if France, Germany and other powers, which got conspicuously in the way, now want to be included in the prize round. The world is the world, it needs mercy more than justice.
The second big lie, in urgent need of correction, is that the U.S. expects much from the UN itself. The haplessness of that organization has already been demonstrated, with an abundance exceeding farce. What the U.S. instead needs is a resolution from that augustly fickle body. It can then use the resolution to collect on promises from not only France and Germany, but more particularly from such countries as India and Turkey, which said they'd send troops and aid of various kinds, but have used the lack of a UN resolution as an excuse for dawdling.
Blog post #1378 in category
War, Terrorism,& the Military
posted 25 September 03