Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (17807)	4/25/2004 1:02:12 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

but at this present time any corruption within the United Nations is of the utmost importance to all of us. First off it is not the utmost thing important to us all. Secondly, if something is corrupt you do not abandon it, villify it and run it to the ground as we do to the UN. Else why don't we do that to the other institutions where corruption exists is my point? Did not know I had to explain it to this level. And here is a newspaper editorial which is relevant to our exchange. Voila! The U.N. becomes viable partner in Iraq Sunday, April 25, 2004 - Sometimes the route to a destination is more twisted and tortuous that it has to be. Such is the case with the Bush administration's path to getting the United Nations involved in the reconstruction and reshaping of Iraq. When it came, it came quickly and as a surprise to most Americans. The first clue that something was afoot came during President Bush's April 13 press conference when he said, "We're working closely with U.N. envoy (Lakhdar) Brahimi and with the Iraqis to determine the exact form of the government that will receive sovereignty" on June 30. A couple days later, Brahimi recommended the form that government should take and, the very next day, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair enthusiastically endorsed the concept, if not all the details. Voila! The institution the Bush administration loved to hate is on the verge of becoming a full-fledged partner in efforts to put Iraq back together again. What a difference a year and a few setbacks make. It's quite a reversal for an institution Bush said less than two years ago risked becoming "irrelevant" if it didn't join our war on Iraq. He even praised "international institutions ... for stepping up to their responsibilities" at his press gathering. It's about time. As we said at the onset of our incursion into Iraq, rebuilding that complicated Middle Eastern nation is a lot tougher than winning the war. And, it will necessitate involving the U.N. and parts of the international community that spurned our war effort, including France, Germany and Russia. Bush had no choice. Iraq isn't Vietnam, but it has become a quagmire and international help is needed if we're to give Iraqis a reasonable future and deter the threat of civil war. What Brahimi proposes, however, has to be a bitter pill for Bush and key aides to swallow. For under his formula, the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, which the administration once considered the nucleus of a transitional government, will be disbanded in favor of a prime minister, president, two vice presidents and a cadre of technocrats operating state ministries. A national conference may be held this summer to select a consultative assembly to serve alongside these administrators until elections in early 2005. Brahimi's plan must be accepted by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S.-led coalition, which will continue to shoulder the major military -- and financial -- burden. Although many particulars must be worked out, Bush pushed onward toward sovereignty by naming U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte as the first U.S. ambassador to the new Iraq. April's bloody battles have made it the deadliest month since our invasion for U.S. troops and Iraqis. Meanwhile, Spain's new prime minister made good on his pledge to pull its troops out of Iraq ASAP. The Pentagon has altered plans to shrink American forces and U.S. administrator Paul Bremer proclaimed what had become obvious -- Iraqi security forces are not ready or willing to protect its people from insurgents. Thus, we find ourselves rehiring Baath Party bureaucrats and former Iraqi military leaders we ran off a year ago. All the more reason for U.N. participation. Up until now, we've had at best a bare-bones skeleton of a plan to exit Iraq based largely on wishful thinking. Bringing international resources into the molding of a new Iraq remains our best bet for salvaging a reasonable future for that troubled nation's people. We may finally be on the right track.