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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Dietrich who wrote (503677)	12/4/2003 3:48:02 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Right-o, Shrub is more of a spendthrift than Clinton. If Reagan were aware of what Shrub is doing, he would be aghast. ----------We're going begging again, in public nytimes.com "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell today urged NATO to consider expanding its activities in Iraq, in the Bush administration's most pointed appeal for international help since it went to war last spring. Mr. Powell stopped short of making a specific request from NATO, presenting the proposal as an idea that merited discussion. He also called for a "more robust" role for the United Nations in Iraq. Ministers in the 26-nation security organization — some of whom staunchly opposed the war that toppled the Iraqi government — reacted coolly to the proposal, with some suggesting that NATO already has its hands full in nearby Afghanistan. But none of them opposed the idea outright, ministers said. The exchange, at a regularly scheduled meeting of NATO diplomats, was the sharpest indication yet from the Bush administration that it seeks to share the costs and sacrifices of rebuilding Iraq with international partners, even if that means surrendering a measure of operational control. Faced with a self-imposed deadline of this summer to transfer authority to an interim government, American officials also appear eager to confer greater international legitimacy onto the effort as they wrestle with political challenges and terror attacks in Iraq. The administration is testing the waters after a series of devastating attacks on allies who have backed the United States in Iraq, bringing recent casualties to Italy, Britain, Turkey, Spain and Japan. All of those governments have said their support will not waver, though public sentiment is rising against it. "The United States welcomes a greater NATO role in Iraq's stabilization," Mr. Powell told his colleagues in a speech today. "We welcome a more robust United Nations role as well." Noting that the United Nations has already approved a resolution to encourage the engagement of multilateral and regional groups to rebuild Iraq, Mr. Powell pressed the ministers to prepare for action by next June, when the NATO heads of state meet in Turkey. "As we prepare for the Istanbul Summit, we urge the Alliance to examine how it might do more to support peace and stability in Iraq, which every leader has acknowledged is critical to all of us," he said. Turning to the United Nations, which drastically scaled back its operations in Iraq after the bombing of its headquarters this fall, Mr. Powell said that a new Security Council resolution would not be necessary for the United Nations to claim a prominent role in the reconstruction. In a meeting in his home last month, he prodded Kofi Annan, the organization's secretary general, to find a way back into the country, Mr. Powell said. Some foreign policy experts said the administration is moving quickly to extricate itself from a tedious and terrifying reconstruction project less than a year before the presidential elections. During a visit to Brussels today, Sen. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that a larger role for NATO in Iraq was all but inevitable. "Within the next year, you will see NATO getting involved in taking over the operations in Iraq, at least the start of such an involvement," Mr. Biden told a group of policy analysts here. Senator Biden also predicted that the Coalition Provisional Authority led by L. Paul Bremer III would be replaced by what Mr. Biden described as a "high commissioner" who would report to the United Nations Security Council. NATO's role in Iraq is currently limited to providing logistical support to the Polish-led multinational division there. In recent days, Mr. Powell and other administration officials have suggested that the treaty organization might take over that division as part of an expanded role. "What strikes me today is that, as we discussed about the possibility of NATO taking an enhanced role in Iraq — taking a new kind of role in Iraq — not a single member spoke against it or talked about reasons not to do it," Mr. Powell said. "The question really was, should we not in the interim, in the immediate near term, focus on Afghanistan and think about what we might be able to do in Iraq in the coming months, and sometime perhaps next year."... ------------ I thought we were the world's last superpower. A democratic monolith out to rid the entire world of non-US type societies. Now we're asking "Old Europe" and the UN for help? This is even more embarrassing than the original insults lobbed at our allies by those more concerned with naming deep-fried potatoes than war strategy.