a must read? i gave up a third of the way through after reading nothing but a boring manta of UN is bad, and reaching the silly point about UNMIK closely resembling Albanian word 'enemy'.

sheesh.

Too bad aYk. I thought it was quite comparable to UB and EU efforts elsewhere: more time spent on squabbling on what to do and who should do it than on accomplishing anything, paternalistic disbelief that the "locals" can do anything for themselves, etc. etc.

This is why I think some UN apparatus may work in Iraq (WHO and UNICEF, for example) but no political or "reconstruction" by the Assembly or Security Council. Which are, if you have not boticed, calling for the US to handle Palestine, North Korea, and anyplace else where the participating nations cannot expect to get money while insisting the UN and EU must be given Iraq where some money can be made.

Hypocrites. Keep 'em out.

UB? Sorry, UN!

OK it's a wordy article, but this is an absolutely critical point.

Schwartz is describing the screw-up achieved by the EU and UN bureaucratic kleptocracies in Kosovo, where they had no incentive to achieve a bad result.

In Iraq they would additionally be propelled by malice against the US.

The one thing EU and UN bureaucrats can agree on as a goal, apart from as usual lining their own pockets, is their intense desire to see to it that despite their failure to sabotage the US before or during the war, they can still achieve the same result afterwards as long as they can get into Iraq. This is why they so ardently desire a 'leading role' for the UN.

Make no mistake that once in there they will do whatever it takes, and happily sacrifice the future of the Iraqi people, to ensure that the result is a mess which the US will shrink from repeating.

They will have no trouble justifing this by telling themselves and all their friends that they were cleverly preventing US interventions in other countries.

Actually they might have had some malice, since Clinton didn't ask for a Resolution beforehand. Ironically, Bush got a Resolution, but it had all the sincerity of a Clinton campaign promise. Regardless, the UN has proved itself unfit to govern. It will be dicey enough with State Dept. stability-mongers.