The Hindu : Shaping post-war Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 09, 2003

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Shaping post-war Iraq

THE STAB WOUNDS inflicted on Baghdad by American battle tanks signal the end of the beginning of the war on Iraq. In the weeks ahead lie some crucial questions and critical tests for the international community relating to reconstruction of not just Iraq but the global order. The issues are more fundamental to global peace and order than the fate of just one individual. They go beyond Saddam Hussein. The immediate question relates to the role of the United Nations in a post-conflict Iraq and how U.N. members can simultaneously ensure that a war waged without Security Council sanction does not secure legitimacy through the backdoor. In the longer term is the vital question of the measures that the global community needs to take to counter the emergence of a new imperial order based on George Bush's strategic doctrine of pre-emption, which according to an Oxford historian would take the world back to the law of the jungle. There have been enough clues to the thinking of the current political leadership in Washington to cause deep concern and disquiet. From the anger and warning over the telecast of video clippings of American prisoners of war — it was without doubt unfortunate and unacceptable but the protests ignored the U.S.' record on treating Taliban prisoners — to the sabre-rattling against Syria and Iran which lie on either side of Iraq, Washington's impatience and intolerance were on full display. The rest of the world can ignore the signals only at its own peril.

As the American President flew across the seas to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for his third summit meeting in three weeks with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, his staunchest ally in the war campaign, attention focusses on the perils ahead if Washington persists with its self-serving unilateralism. If the remarks of American officials are a sign of things to come, it is unlikely that the U.N. will be given any major role in the economic and political reconstruction of Iraq. There would be a role for the U.N. as a mechanism for bringing humanitarian assistance to the people, said the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz. "But our goal has got to be to transfer authority not to some other external authority but to the Iraqi people themselves." Clearly, whatever marginal role the U.N. is allowed to play, it will be American rule in Iraq for at least the next six months by men handpicked by the Pentagon and its tough-talking patron saint, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary.

The remarkable successes in the war will no doubt serve to boost the voice of the Rumsfelds. But this is a perfect recipe for disaster in the Middle East at this juncture when Arab emotions are raw and the street scene is hostile. Any programme of reconstruction and rehabilitation, political, economic and social, will have little support or little chance of acceptance in the region if it lacks the endorsement and leadership of the U.N. On the eve of the summit, Mr. Blair appealed to Mr. Bush to combine America's quest for its own security with the wider needs of international justice. Mr. Blair and his Foreign Secretary have publicly called for making the U.N. the umbrella organisation in post-conflict Iraq, with Jack Straw declaring that it will not be foreign nationals, meaning American or British, running the Iraqi Government. The "Iraq for Iraqis" call conceals concerns that Washington might allow opportunistic, friendly, returning exiles to take political charge of their country. There is little chance that Mr. Blair will persuade his American guest. In which case, the world will continue to hear more of the logic of the colonial era from the Bush Presidency in the coming weeks.

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