Good article in TNR on why the Bush administration keeps trying to work with Kofi Annan, despite being repeatedly shafted by him. Excerpt:
Far stranger is that the hawkish Bush administration has grown so close to Annan. And it's largely Powell's doing. The two men trace their friendship to the Gulf war, when Annan helped negotiate the release of 900 U.N. employees held in Iraq. They also share an interest in African aids. According to State Department officials, Powell has built up Annan's reputation for reliability within the administration. But it wasn't until September 11 that the Bushies saw Annan's real value--as someone who could take on the Afghan nation-building responsibilities that the Bush team didn't want. In the weeks after the attack, Bush finally convinced the House Republicans to pay $582 million in arrears. Annan has since become a regular presence at the White House, where Bush has declared, he possesses a "good heart." "[Annan is] a class act, as we say in the state of Texas," Bush announced at a New York reception last month.
Which helps explain why, despite having been burned by Annan so recently, the State Department seems poised to repeat the mistake. After Powell and Rice slammed him in the September 17 conference call, one U.S. official pointed me to the headline of a Los Angeles Times article: "ANNAN BOWS OUT OF THE TUG OF WAR BETWEEN THE U.S. AND IRAQ." Another official told me, "I think Powell and [U.N. Ambassador John] Negroponte aren't worried about his doing more damage. He's out of the picture for now." But Annan advisers say that if the State Department believes this, the United States is mistakenly presuming on his friendship once again. With or without a new U.N. resolution, inspectors will return to Iraq. Inevitably, Saddam will thwart their work and the crisis will build. At that point, Annan's advisers say, he might try another last-ditch effort at preventing war. And if the United States and Britain strike without the Security Council's blessing, he will bemoan the violation of international law. "It's his constitutional obligation to promote peace," says Tharoor.
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