September 9, 2003- Change Of Tune

In the last week, we have seen a change in tune from the White House when it comes to Iraq. Oh, they are not saying that it has all been a failure or anything like that, just that they want to handle it a bit differently. After months and months of insisting that America could do this all on its own, now the President and his cronies are saying that they want to give the United Nations an expanded role on things. As always, the Pentagon and White House are not going to admit that they made a mistake in the way that they have run things thus far in the campaign, no that would be an affront to their pride and egos. Instead, they are saying that an expanded United Nations presence will help smooth things out a lot and make it easier to bring Iraq into the community of nations and all that kind of diplomatic talk. The American people are being asked to blindly accept this shit just like they have blindly accepted everything that the government has told them in the last two years. If they do, they will be making another huge mistake, for what their government is telling them is just more lies, like the whole Iraq thing has been based on in the first place. From the beginning, the White House and Pentagon have said that this would be a campaign that America could undertake on its own, after all, Iraq is not a huge country nor did it have an especially sophisticated military, especially when it was compared to the United States military, etc. So, on the surface, it would look as if the superior American military would have little problem conquering Iraq, and few could argue with that point. And that very point was proven in the spring when the American military rolled into and through Iraq without suffering many major losses of any kind. However, the Pentagon failed to tell the American people that there is a lot more to taking over a country then just coming in and decimating everything militarily. Once you are done with the military phase of things, you have to have a coherent strategy to run things in the aftermath of the military phase, and that is exactly what America did not have when it came to Iraq. They were so fuckin' concerned about making sure that Mr. Businessman was going to make his windfall profits from oil sales that they ignored the fact that they would have a country full of citizens to run. All that America had plans for was to keep the oil flowing and the resulting monies flowing to the right people, and those people were not the citizens of Iraq, despite what the White House said to the contrary. They said that the oil monies would go directly to helping these citizens out, and nothing of the sort has actually happened. Instead, those monies have gone directly into the bank accounts of Mr. Businessman, just like President Bush wanted them too. Meanwhile, the citizens of Iraq are living in an increasingly desperate and lawless land. America has found out that the plight of these citizens is more important than enriching Mr. Businessman because these citizens outnumber Mr. Businessman by quite a lot. There is no way that the flow of money can continue uninterrupted to Mr. Businessman as things get increasingly lawless in Iraq. President Bush has had this called to his attention and decided to act, statesman that he is. He knows that the United Nations has wanted a role in all of this ever since Day One. He refused to give them one because some of what the UN wanted to do was not exactly what George W. Bush wanted to do. He felt that if they were going to be part of this, that they would have to toe his line and do exactly what he wanted them to do. Since Bush has shown that he is a man that has no use at all for negotiations or compromise, there was no use trying to cut any kind of a deal with him or anything like that, he said that it had to be his way or the highway. Bush felt that all this disagreement was keeping him from starting his war like he wanted to. He felt that this war was an urgent priority, and that it needed to commence as soon as possible. Bush said that this had to be this way because invading and conquering Iraq was essential to fighting the War On Terror, because Bush said that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were major players in that terrorism scene and had to be neutralized as soon as possible. The endless red tape and bullshit that the United Nations os famous for doing before they take any actions at all was going to do nothing except delay things unnecessarily. So Bush felt that he had to blow off the UN and not wait for them to play their endless diplomatic games and go into Iraq alone. Even though that meant that there was no one else to pay for any of this war except America, and that there would be virtually nothing except American troops involved, Bush decided that America had to go it without any UN help. He looked like a genius at first, because that superior American military machine eliminated Saddam's forces in near-record time. The Iraqi people were seen dancing in the streets at their arrival (well, certain sectors of it anyway), and it did look like America would be able to pull this off on its own and fuck the United Nations over big time. Then, things started to change. The Social fabric of Iraq unraveled big- Time. Lawlessness and anarchy ruled the streets of Iraq, not The American military. Suddenly, there were more American military casualties in Iraq during the postwar period than there were during the war itself. American soldiers found themselves becoming targets for any zealot motherfucker in the area that had a grudge against Western or American interests, and that has proven to be quite a large number of people. The American people are becoming increasingly agitated at the continuing reports of American casualties and starting to (gasp!!) actually question the President's motivations and methodology here. So, suddenly, Bush looks at the United Nations and decides that maybe they can help out in this after all. But the question begs to be answered, can the United Nations really help bring stability to Iraq, or is it just another forlorn cause, too little too late?

Bush and his people have been saying as of late that the UN can indeed have a role in rebuilding Iraq and that they would be helpful if they did. The reality is something else altogether. One of the reasons that Bush gave for blowing off the UN at first was that they move so slowly on everything, that all that they do is always tied up in miles of red tape and protocol. This is indeed a fact, the United Nations moves at a snail's pace at everything that it does because it is a bloated beaurocracy that is totally filled with rules and regulations concerning everything that they do. None of this will change in this Iraq situation, in fact, it will be a field day for the beaurocrats there. Rebuilding an entire country means that there are infinite chances to have all sorts of cumbersome rules and regulations governing everything that takes place. The UN would come into Iraq and start to throw all these rules and regulations and red tape around with everything. Things will proceed at a glacial pace just like everything that the UN does. There will be all sorts of partisan political bickering about everything that they have to deal with. Since they have these rotating chairmanships in the UN, a different country will be overseeing a specific aspect of things every so often, and all that will bring about is a different country bringing its own agenda to things, and that agenda may not be the same one as the country that oversaw things last had, so that could lead to paralysis, because that is what this policy has led to so many times before with the United Nations. Look at the number of countries that they have gone into to help with famines and pestilence and the like. They have a record of like zero when it comes to actually putting a stop to these things. The United Nations has stopped zero famines, zero wars, zero pestilence, and so on. If these issues do get resolved in these countries, it is always because forces other than the UN take control and they put a stop to it all, the UN never does shit. So, bringing them into Iraq will not help things along at all, it will just bring cumbersome beaurocracy there, and that will do naught towards rebuilding the country. One of the adbantages of bringing the UN in at first was that America could have someone else pay for some of the war, for as we have seen, this is a massively expensive war, one that rivals Vietnam in its expenditures. Since the American taxpayers tend to be rather skittish at the thought of having billions and billions of their tax dollars spent on shit like war, it made good sense to think this way. However, Bush blew this window of opportunity by going it alone. Now, there is no way that America can get anyone else to defray the costs of the war. Since they started it all, they are stuck quite deeply in it by now. America has been the only one to pay for it all so far, and that has set a precedent here. If other countries do send troops into Iraq, they will have America pay for it, like they already are with the Polish and indian troops that are with them there now. The only reason that these countries have sent troops in the first place is because America has paid the troops salaries. Since these countries have worked out an agreement like this with America, any others that would come to Iraq under UN auspices would certainly do the same. Bush knows this, that is part of the reason why he has asked for 87 billion more dollars for the war effort, he knows that America is going to have to pay for any UN help that they get. He also knows that any UN troops that would be sent would be sent to safer positions behind the scenes, they would not go right on the front lines of battle, they would leave that to the Americans. That would mean that America would suffer the majority of any casualties, while the UN troops would be shuffling papers and enforcing regulations and the like. However, the United Nations would be getting in on some of that oil money that is flowing around, rest assured of that. Their business friends would get a piece of the pie, and that would only take away a piece from Mr. American Businessman, the person that Bush started this war for. Instead, that money will go to Mr. European Businessman, Mr. Asian Businessman, and so on. President Bush's friends in the business community ( and there are many of those to be sure)will not be so pleased with him, and Bush wants to please these dudes more than anything, he has proven that time and time again. However, it si staring to look as if he has no choice in the matter. Another thing that he seems to have no choice over is relinquishing total American control over the situation. Bringing in the UN means that you will be bringing in people that have concrete ideas about how things should be run, ideas that surely will differ from the US's ideas on the same subject. The UN will not come in to the situation unless it is given assurances that they will have the power to have control over much of the situation, being able to issue laws and decrees and the like. They will also make sure that they have the assurance that America will not be able to override their decrees and laws once they issue them. So that will only lead to two sets of everything, sets that will surely clash time and time again over issue after issue. One will negate the other, and progress will be impossible. You will just end up with endless squabbling and bickering between America and the United Nations over everything, and that conflict will lead to complete cessation of any efforts to rebuild Iraq, and the current state of stagnation will only be worsened. The only difference will be that instead of a virtual monopoly on the oil money, there will be an oligarchy on it instead. Since the common people of Iraq, like the common people of every country on Earth, are usually never a part of any oligarchies that start up, they will not reap any benefits from having the UN come in there. Their lives shall stand still and stagnate and not progress, and that will lead to even more unrest amongst them. Then, America and the UN will have to spend ever-increasing amounts of their money and time and manpower dealing with this unrest, and the rebuilding efforts will fall by the wayside. That is about all that you can expect from having the UN come into the situation now. They shall not bring any peace or stability at all, only more chaos and confusion and greed and avarice. The United Nations has never solved much of anything ion the world at all, and certainly never anything important. All they do is feed off of other people's money, usually taxpayers. They are nothing but a big business unto themselves, and they are looking to perpetuate the business and the lucrative jobs that it provides and not much else. They just want to suck up some of that American money like vampires after blood. They have no chance of straightening out the Iraq situation at all, just making it worse. Iraq is a problem that will not go away anytime soon, and America needs to find the solution to it, for they are the ones that created it. The United Nations does not have that solution, and America needs to look for someone that does, and that will certainly only be themselves, and the sooner that America realizes that they are the only ones with the solution here, the sooner that the Iraq problem gets resolved.