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October 18, 2004
Muslim Troops to Help Organize Elections in Iraq? No Thanks. It Would Interfere With Our Attempts to Bring Democracy
What would be a dream arrangement if one were trying to provide security for elections in Iraq and minimize U.S. troop presence? How about muslim troops under United Nations command to help U.N. go back into Iraq to organize democratic elections? Sounds too good to be true, no?
Well, it would have been true if the Bush administration hadn't shot down the offer. No thanks, we don't want any troops that wouldn't be under U.S. command. In fact, we don't want anything in Iraq that's not totally under our control.
Here's the story:
President George W. Bush rebuffed a plan last month for a Muslim peacekeeping force that would have helped the United Nations organize elections in Iraq, according to Saudi and Iraqi officials.As a result, the UN continues to have a skeletal presence in Iraq, with only four staff members working full time on preparing for elections set for the end of January. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has refused to establish a new UN headquarters in Baghdad unless countries commit troops for a special force to protect it.
Saudi leaders, including Crown Prince Abdullah, personally lobbied Bush in July to sign off on the plan to establish a contingent of several hundred troops from Arab and Muslim nations. Abdullah discussed the plan in a 10-minute phone conversation with Bush on July 28 after meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to Saudi officials familiar with the negotiations.
Diplomats said Annan accepted the plan. But the Bush administration objected because the special force would have been controlled by the UN instead of by U.S. military officers who run the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Muslim and Arab countries refused to work under U.S. command, and the initiative died in early September.
"Muslim countries that were willing to provide troops were not willing to put them under the command of the U.S.-led coalition," said a senior Iraqi security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "In many of these nations, there was too much domestic pressure for the governments to justify putting their troops under U.S. control."
The White House confirmed Friday that U.S. military commanders raised objections because the Muslim troops would not have been under their control. "It was a serious issue for commanders of the Multi-National Force," said a White House spokesman who refused to be identified by name.
Internationalizaton, troop withdrawal, bringing democracy, allowing for sovereignty, blah, blah, blah.
Hey, they don't even trust their hand-picked CIA-asset Dear Leader Ayad Allawi to act as their cover, if it involves giving him a whiff of real power. I suppose they know all too well the myriads of reasons not to trust him.
At one point, the Saudis proposed that Muslim forces be placed under the command of the Iraqi government. That idea won over Allawi, but not the United States. "The Americans wanted ultimate control, and that made it impossible to make this work," said the Iraqi official.
Posted by zeynep at October 18, 2004 11:44 AM
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