Caucus or election?
The problem:
Mention Baghdad in the offices of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division and it still produces a frisson of tension.
But the U.S. needs the U.N....
After months of blocking U.N. efforts to intervene, the Bush administration is now falling over backwards to involve the world body. American officials know that any realistic exit strategy needs U.N. involvement in a wholesale way.
...and the U.N. needs to do this:
For all Annan's concerned hesitation, the United Nations needs to be in Iraq "if the U.N. wants to have a future," as the European diplomat put it.
Mention Baghdad in the offices of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division and it still produces a frisson of tension.
But the U.S. needs the U.N....
After months of blocking U.N. efforts to intervene, the Bush administration is now falling over backwards to involve the world body. American officials know that any realistic exit strategy needs U.N. involvement in a wholesale way.
...and the U.N. needs to do this:
For all Annan's concerned hesitation, the United Nations needs to be in Iraq "if the U.N. wants to have a future," as the European diplomat put it.
// 1/21/2004 
