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UN vs US

9 January 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Mahmood Elahi, 2240 Iris Street, Ottawa, Canada
9 January 2004, 18:00 PM
I read the recent New York Times editorial urging the U.S. to hand over political authority of Iraq to the UN. The editorialists at the New York Times, like other critics of US President George W Bush on Iraq, fail to realise that the United Nations can hardly do anything to improve the security situation in Iraq. The United Nations never sanctioned the war against Iraq and still it was attacked. Why? The answer lies in the fact that the UN's presence was seen as legitimising the US occupation of Iraq.

Leftover Saddam loyalists and religious fanatics have obviously joined forces against what they always considered as their common enemy -- the United States. Anything and anyone is fair game if it disrupts the working of American forces and ultimately drives them out. "This is the strategy of making things worse," says David Rudd, director of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. "Make life so painful that the UN can't do its work, that the Military fails and all outsiders withdraw," Mr Rudd added.

Seen in this light, it is obvious that the United Nations would be impotent in Iraq, even if it is given political authority. This means that even if America gives up its control of Iraq, the UN will be incapable of providing any stability as it will come under renewed attacks by heavily-armed Baathist loyalists and their allies. No other country would be willing and able to sustain military casualties for long. Turkey has agreed to provide 10,000-strong peace-keeping force. But it is not clear what type of security the Turkish troops would be able to provide if they suffer daily combat casualties. It is more likely that Turkey would beat a hasty retreat if its troops suffer casualties like the US troops.

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Considering all this, the United States may be the only power which can defeat the Saddam loyalists and their allies and bring Iraq back to normalcy. It is the UN which needs the US and not other way around. The United States, with the help of the Iraqi allies, will have to restore law and order before the United Nations can move in and help in the reconstruction of Iraq.