The Hindu : Return to the U.N.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 11, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Return to the U.N.

THE COLLAPSE OF Baghdad, stupefyingly swift and etched in memory by the way the towering statue of Saddam Hussein was brought tumbling down on Shaheed Square, signifies that the primary objective of this American war of aggression has for all purposes been achieved. With the regime change goal secured, even as it goes in hot pursuit of the fallen dictator, the occupying nation has the task of winning the peace and returning the country to Iraqi civil rule in the shortest possible time. Besides, it has the duty to the international community of finding those weapons of mass destruction, the presumed presence of which in Iraq was the prime reason cited by Washington and its cohorts to justify the launch of this illegitimate war. It will be time soon for the U.S. to produce proof. For the searches to be credible, the United Nations weapons inspectors must return to the country to continue their interrupted work. The U.S Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has repeatedly promised to find and eliminate these WMDs and their delivery systems and to work back up the chain of proliferation to find their sources outside the country. Invading American and British soldiers have discovered very little evidence of chemical or biological weapons, though military analysts had warned that Iraq might use them to counterattack. Failure to find these weapons will be interpreted by most nations to mean an intolerable deceit of the world.

The U.S must also get the issue of post-war reconstruction in all its aspects back to the U.N., giving it the lead role. President George Bush's remarks after his summit talks in Belfast with the British Prime Minister, promising a "vital role" for the U.N., must be dismissed as resort to semantics to conceal continuing differences between the two allies and will be unacceptable to the rest of the world. The "vital role" Mr. Bush was ready to concede would reduce the U.N. to an aid distributor. It is vital to ensure that humanitarian relief reaches the people without loss of time. But equally vital for the future of the country and the region are the composition and powers of the interim political administration which will run the country until democratic elections are conducted. Giving the lead role to the world body to manage these issues would, first, pull international relations back from the abnormality of the past month, secondly, heal the trans-Atlantic wound and, thirdly, silence Arab and other critics who suspect that Washington's ultimate objective in waging this war is to gain control over the oil wealth of Iraq. The Bush administration unfortunately seems determined to go its way and install a team of lackeys in Baghdad, ignoring warnings that the anger in the Arab street can only get inflamed further by such decisions.

The reaction of the Arabs has so far remained muted, the population shellshocked by the rapidity of the changes in Iraq. The wild scenes witnessed in the streets of the Iraqi capital were a contrast. The manner in which Fortress Baghdad has crumbled, defiance melting into disappearance, has drawn a parallel to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, though the celebrations on Wednesday appeared to be lacking the scale and spontaneity of the historic event that heralded German reunification. The poor of Baghdad had other preoccupations, like stripping Saddam Hussein's offices and the capital's stores of their contents. The absence of resistance from the forces of the formidable ruler, who had successfully kept the country on a tight leash for two decades, meant that his men were overwhelmed by the crushing superiority of their opponents. As for the top leaders themselves, including Saddam Hussein, if they have not perished in the two targeted bombings of the three-week-old war, they have perhaps retreated to their strongholds in the north for a last stand. Perhaps not. This brief campaign has already shattered many of the notions carefully built up by Saddam Hussein and his allies. The only certainty is that neither Iraq nor the Middle East, or for that matter, the world, will be the same again.

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