Iraq is totally hosed. The UN Evoy might walk and no plans for turnover

Blair's perversity does him harm and Iraq no good

A handover to the UN is now the only way to meet this crisis

Polly Toynbee
Wednesday May 12, 2004
The Guardian

Iraq is near meltdown. The White House and Downing Street seem transfixed in a state of denial, incapable even of damage limitation. The UN - the last best chance - is on the brink of walking away from Iraq, leaving Bush and Blair to reap the whirlwind they have sown.
Iraq inhabits a political and legal void with a foreign force failing to keep basic order. A few days ago, supply convoys carrying food for US forces couldn't get through to Baghdad, leaving troops on hard rations. Americans and their troops have long been barricaded in, apart from heavily armoured sorties. Western journalists can no longer operate: as Jonathan Steele eloquently described, even the most battle-hardened are holed up, relying on Iraqi journalists' reports. Showing a western face is too dangerous.

On June 30, the fabled handover of sovereignty is to take place. In Washington they are clinging to the mantra that this marks a turning point, with no reason why things should get better. It's only six weeks away, but there is still no plan, not a single piece of paper yet describing exactly what powers are being transferred to whom. Who will these 10,000 prisoners belong to? How much of the oil revenues will flow directly into the interim government? Who will the new government be?

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special representative, was sent to Iraq to ease the passage to democracy much against his will. With his arm twisted by Kofi Annan and George Bush, he reluctantly agreed but warned of the risk of ensnaring the UN in this ill-fated US/UK adventure. As the murder of its previous envoy showed, the UN is unloved in a country that suffered 12 years of corruptly administered UN sanctions. Brahimi warned that the US would never hand over enough power to make a truly independent UN intervention possible. He was right. Now, according to Tony Blair's close advisers, he is about to walk away from Iraq, leaving Britain and America alone to stew after June 30.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1214642,00.html

n/t

Re: a handover to UN or multinational force that isn't a rubber stamp for BushCo:

it would mean an implicit admission of failure for an American administration contemptuous of multilateralism in general, and the UN in particular. Even so, a dignified handover might have been a lesser humiliation than facing what may be worse disasters to come. Where was Blair's voice suggesting this wiser course of action? Now the drowning men are letting their last liferaft slip.

Brahimi is struggling with Paul Bremer, the US governing power, over what sovereignty is to be handed over in June. He plans a government led by an honorary triumvirate, but run by technocrats not planning to stand for office, a nascent civil service. But Bremer is resisting Brahimi's attempts to disband all members of the present discredited governing council, dominated by the likes of Ahmed Chalabi, who have been running the country on networks of patronage and nepotism. Now only real power will convince Iraqis they are no longer occupied, but Bremer is denying the interim government the right to make new laws. It is unclear how much of the oil money the new government will control: the US is keeping the strings tightly drawn...