Prometheus 6

The Cruelest Month
By WILLIAM SAFIRE SATIRE

WASHINGTON — "April is the cruelest month," wrote T. S. Eliot in "The Waste Land." This April cruelly set back democracy and antiterrorism in Iraq.

Casualties reached a peak. A Marine commander had to appeal to a Republican Guard general to come to terms with Baathist insurgents in Falluja. President Bush had to express America's disgust at the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by a handful of sadistic guards. Taken together, that's about as bad as it gets.

However, a certain grim logic suggests a turn for the better may be coming this summer.

Every other logic says it sucks more daily. But William Satire clings to his "certain grim" logic.

Our June 30 deadline for the end of occupation, once criticized, is now inexorable. Iraqi sovereignty, it has been agreed, will be palpable but limited; coalition troops will remain under command of the former occupiers, and the purpose of the U.N.-chosen transitional Iraqi government is strictly to set up free elections.

Definition of "palpable": capable of being perceived by the senses or the mind. So all we need to do is pass out the same drugs Satire uses and we'll all be satisfied with the results we're getting.

The U.N., at last given its long-sought "central role" in Iraq's politics, is becoming less afflicted with hubris.

This is the single most hypocritical statement a supporter of this invasion could make.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the Berber who sought cheap popularity among anti-Americans in Iraq by calling Israel "poison" and the U.S. support of Gaza withdrawal "thoughtless," was reported by Secretary General Kofi Annan to wish he had not said that.

Too bad the Bushistas can't seem to be as honorable about their errors.

Annan went on to assure NBC's Tim Russert that any U.N. employee who refused to cooperate with the independent investigation into the oil-for-food scandal would be fired.

Plame? Sixteen words? Just-In-Time Declassification?

Annan still called corruption charges a "smear." He passed the failed-supervision buck to the Security Council's 661 committee, then lamely professed little knowledge of a cover-up letter sent only two weeks ago in the name of his chief aide, hinting that it might not have been his aide's doing.

But the secretary general seemed aware of the damage done to the U.N. by the $5 billion kickback scheme.

Enron? Halliburton? Hello??