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http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6643529.htmBush aides now looking at larger U.N. role in Iraq
By Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Alarmed by mounting casualties and staggering costs in Iraq, a growing number of Bush administration officials have concluded that the current U.S. strategy is unsustainable and are looking for ways to increase U.N. involvement, American officials and foreign diplomats say. Under consideration, they said, are creating a multinational U.N. peacekeeping force with continued U.S. military command, giving the world body a larger role in transferring governance back to Iraqis, and seeking greater international financial contributions.
The proposals would mark a dramatic departure for President Bush and his top aides, who went to war in Iraq without explicit U.N. approval and have insisted on tight U.S. control of virtually every aspect of the postwar occupation. None of the proposals have been adopted. Officials in the office of Vice President Cheney and some civilian officials who work for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld are resisting any broader international involvement in Iraq, which, in their view, would disrupt plans for an American-initiated remaking of the Middle East.
But senior uniformed military officers, along with Bush political director Karl Rove, are said to be aligning with State Department officials in arguing that the status quo in Iraq must be altered. Bush is said to be uneasy about events in Iraq but determined to see the mission through. U.S. soldiers are being killed virtually every other day, and the Pentagon's occupation costs are running at nearly $4 billion monthly.
"There's no way to pretend that the cost of this isn't rising, in human terms, in military terms, and in economic terms," one senior official said. He and others spoke on condition of anonymity.
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