‘The demise of the Iraqi army has been disastrous for the safety of soldiers, aid workers and the public (writes Julian Borger)

It seems that after the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Bagdhad Bush sent Powell off to the U.N. in another attempt to gain support for more soldiers from non-involved countries to help police Iraq - it didn’t work. Without U.N. support and leadership in a country where there is at least some stability and security most countries are simply not willing to put their people’s lives on the line to back U.S. ambitions. What does Washington have to say about this?

….[it’s the] the typical manoeuvring of a morally bankrupt international community aimed at extracting political gain from a tragedy. Washington’s critics, according to this view of the world, will stop at nothing to clip America’s wings.

Not extracting political gain (how’s that for typical U.S. administration arrogance?) but just possibly teaching the U.S. a bit of a lesson in responsibility…. and I can think of no nation in the western world that needs their wings clipped more than the United States of America does, with balls that big one wonders how George Bush and the U.S. administration are even able to walk properly.

They invade and occupy a country without the benefit of international support or backing, screw up the entire deal as a result of the completely misguided assumption that…

…the Iraqi government would continue to function before, during and after the war, simply transferring its allegiance to the Stars and Stripes.

… and expect the international community to come rushing to their aid when it doesn’t happen.

On the reconstruction effort

This is an administration that still has not got water, oil and electricity flowing again because other tasks like repainting schools (a more immediately gratifying photo-op) have taken priority, as has doling out contracts to US corporations at the expense of existing Iraqi contractors.

Possibly if the U.S. administration can prove to the world that it has its act even semi-together, is genuinely concerned with the fate of the Iraqi people, and if Bush can reign in the idiots in Washington who are acting like angry little kids on some schoolyard playground that nobody wants to play with, the international community will be more willing to lend a hand.

(The content of this post came from an older pMachine incarnation of stageleft with a different hosting company - comments, if any, didn’t make it into the rebuild)