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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (118301)	6/5/2005 9:18:39 PM
From: Rarebird	Respond to of 794309

We are besieged by real enemies. The UN Security Council has agreed to extend the mandate of "multinational (US) forces in Iraq until the completion of the political process". Since there is no way to tell how long this Iraqi "political process" is going to last, the UN Security Council has effectively done the geo-political equivalent of waving a red cape before the US bull and leaving it up to the bull whether to charge or just stand there. In effect, the Security Council has given the Bush Administration an open ended mandate to stay in Iraq for as long as it wants, at least until it decides that the political process has been "completed". In both real geo- political and geo-strategic terms, this has only taken place because the other members on the UN Security Council have decided that the US can't stay much longer in Iraq. If any of the members thought that they could, they would have blocked an open ended mandate for the US armed forces to stay in Iraq by straightforward procedural means. By doing the above, the UN Security Council has effectively removed itself, as well as the rest of the UN, from the scene in Iraq. By default, that leaves the entire Iraq situation in the Bush Administration's hands. From now on, the US can expect no help with Iraq from the UN. That places the entire burden, militarily, politically, and economically, on the USA. The US wanted it, now it has it. At least 77 US troops were killed in May, according to a count of deaths announced by the military. That is the highest toll since 107 Americans were killed in January. This marked the second straight monthly increase since 36 US troops died in March - one of the lowest totals of the war. A US military spokesman in Baghdad said that insurgents are staging about 70 attacks nationwide every day. Insurgents have killed more than 700 Iraqis and 77 US troops since a Shiite-led cabinet was announced on April 28, making May the bloodiest month since the pre-election insurgency in January. There have been a growing number of car bomb attacks, with 135 in April and 147 in May. The US now faces a national uprising against its occupation of Iraq wrapped inside an expanding Iraqi civil war. And with all this, the US has insufficient troops on the ground to control either situation and faces its own manpower breakdown.