If you really believe in the Iraq invasion, you must get rid of the current administration
Fighting has U.S. grasping for a plan
June 30 deadline leaves everything 'up in the air'
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, May 2, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle
As the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq stumbles from one problem to the next, suddenly everything seems to be up for grabs, and an administration that once seemed sure of its goals and its strategy now appears to be trying anything that might work.
Having long resisted calls for United Nations involvement, the White House is now embracing it, expecting the world body to come up with a political solution that has evaded the United States.
But with the chaotic surge in fighting and the growing discontent of ordinary Iraqis, even staunch supporters of the United Nations say it may not have the capacity to stop Iraq's meltdown.
And as the U.S. occupation prepares to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30, calls are increasing for what until now has been widely viewed as unthinkable -- a full-scale American troop withdrawal.
"Nearly everything is up in the air," said Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland who has been a high-profile diplomatic troubleshooter in the Balkans and other critical areas. "There is very little time to resolve the situation."
Ahtisaari is chairman of the International Crisis Group, a respected Brussels-based think tank that issued a report last week calling for the United Nations to be given unambiguous command of the political transition in Iraq. In an interview with The Chronicle, Ahtisaari cautioned that the U.N. envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, must be given complete support by the Bush administration -- including the Pentagon, which has long distrusted the world body.
