Washington eats humble pie

2003-09-15 07:45

New York - The curtain fell on Act I to the sound of US bombs falling on Baghdad. Now it has quietly risen on a second act, in a diplomatic drama analysts say could revive a United Nations left behind in the wake of war.

Six months after attacking Iraq in defiance of the world body, Washington sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to Geneva to appeal to those same spurned UN partners for badly needed help in managing the painful aftermath of the US-British invasion.

Powell said he was encouraged by Saturday's talks. More will follow.

In Europe and beyond, some sound smug, others bitter, about the US change of heart.

The Americans expect a "bailout," a Pakistani newspaper commented. "Washington flinched," concluded a German columnist. "The UN should teach the United States and Britain a lesson," editorialised Indonesia's biggest daily, Kompas.

But even Kompas told readers things are too grim in Iraq to gloat for long. "The UN cannot sit on its hands."

Analysts say all sides have little choice but to forget past insults and work together to find a compromise formula combining US-UN oversight of a rebuilding Iraq.

That, said German scholar Karl Kaiser, "can breathe new life into the United Nations, which had been sidestepped".

Kaiser, of Berlin's German Council on Foreign Relations, said the French and Germans see a "golden opportunity" in Geneva and follow-up talks to redefine the UN role, at a moment when the American superpower is faltering.

Naked aggression

Jordanian commentator Hasan Abu Nimah, a former UN ambassador who denounced the March 20 invasion as "naked aggression," said he, too, now believes the United Nations should come to the invaders' aid.

"I don't see anything wrong with helping and encouraging the US and Britain to exit safely from this crisis," he said in a telephone interview from Amman.

A year ago in New York, US President George W Bush told 190 other UN members the organisation would become "irrelevant" if it didn't back his plan for an Iraq war. After months of debate, however, he was denied UN Security Council support. France, Germany, Russia and others saw no justification for war.

The US military invaded anyway, quickly sweeping Iraq's army from the field. But now American troops are dying at the hands of a hit-run guerrilla resistance, and the Bush administration sees the costs of occupation and reconstruction mounting by tens of billions of dollars. It wants UN help - both troops and money.

"The fact the US is coming back to the United Nations at this point is itself an indication the UN did not become 'irrelevant'," said Yale University scholar James Sutterlin, a former top UN political aide.

The world body "has a unique capacity to mobilise money and legitimise the use of troops," he said.

The five permanent Security Council members - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China - are trying to design a council resolution putting a UN stamp on the occupation force - to draw more non-US troops - and giving the United Nations greater influence over Iraq's political transition, and possibly over oil revenues and economic reconstruction.

Embarrassing

For the Bush administration, it would be "much more than embarrassing" to cede such power, but it's their only option, Abu Nimah argued.

"This is a very grave situation that's going to get graver still," the ex-diplomat said of the anti-occupation violence in neighbouring Iraq.

Others, such as former Canadian UN ambassador David Malone, say everyone has much to win or lose in the talks that began in Geneva and will continue at lower levels in New York.

For one thing, US support is vital to a healthy United Nations, noted Malone, president of the International Peace Academy in New York. For another, France and Germany, eager to close ranks with European Union partners who backed the Iraq war, ought to be flexible.

Still, "Washington is in a difficult position diplomatically because it absolutely needs help," he said.

Bowing to the UN flag won't guarantee a happy Act III, however. Many governments may still balk at mustering troops and cash.

"The US leadership intends to entrap the troops of other countries in the quagmire of Iraq," commented the influential Jang newspaper of Pakistan, whose soldiers Washington may hope to enlist for Iraq duty.

Even old friends sound hesitant.

In May, the South Koreans, at US request, speedily dispatched almost 700 army engineers and medics to Iraq. Asked for more this month, government officials in Seoul were suddenly cautious. They'd rather wait, they said, and see how the plot unfolds.

- AP