( Seattle Times ) - The United States should move “without delay” to transfer political power to the Iraqi people under the mandate of the United Nations, French President Jacques Chirac said yesterday.

“In the face of the risk of chaos, an approach based on security is necessary, but not sufficient,” Chirac said in a speech to a gathering of French ambassadors. “The response should be first political. The transfer of power and sovereignty to Iraqis themselves constitutes the only realistic option.”

There is a lot to be said in favour of this plan and very little, that I can think of, against it. The Iraqi people (through no fault of their own) are living in a country that is in a state of economic and political collapse, they are unemployed, they lack basic protection services, the lack basic utilities, and the control of their destiny resides with the very people who brought them to this state…. people who do not understand either them ot their culture - people who they obviously distrust and who don’t trust them.

Control of their future through the political decision making process will not solve all their problems over night, but it will solve one - the continuing sense of powerlessness over events, and solving that problem will go a long way to solving others. Chirac also publicly stated something that the rest of the world knows, the U.S. needs to deal with:

“The United Nations did not support the war in Iraq and is not responsible for its consequences…”

Again, that old saying about making your bed and having to lay in it comes to mind - maybe if the U.S. administration tried a little real diplomacy [instead of what they call diplomacy on CNN for the benefit of the American people] the international community would be less inclined to watch Bush & Co. eat dirt and more inclined to help out. But they can always look on the bright side…..

Halliburton, the oil-services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has $1.7 billion worth of contacts to support the U.S. occupation of Iraq and could make $1 billion more rebuilding the country’s war-damaged oil industry….

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