One of the patron saints of the Liberal Blogosphere, Juan Cole, has just written an article which argues that the US should remove its troops and replace them with international forces under the control of the United Nations.The thing is, of course, that I suggested exactly the same thing back in August 2005, and then expanded it into a full blown article in November 2005.
So yes, another Cassandra moment, where my calls were ignored. It's hard realising just how far ahead of the curve I am... (examines fingernails)
From the Department of ha ha I was right all along and I deserve to be smug
© 2006 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
FAQ about the author
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
5 comments:
Well Neil, that is hardly a new suggestion. I recall Riverbend saying the same thing on her blog well over a year ago. The chick I was arguing with in the Socialist Alliance said the same thing some time ago. I don't think there is anything too remarkable in the suggestion that we "put UN troops into Iraq".
Is it practical? Where would the troops come from? And does the UN *want* to take control of Iraq? Is it capable?
And a quick google shows that Juan Cole has actually been saying this since at least May 2005 - http://www.j-n-v.org/AW_briefings/JNV_briefing083.htm
Actually, it looks like Dubya trumped you by at least 2 years - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0921-04.htm
Hi Craig, a much nicer mugshot by the way.
While I won't claim to be the first to suggest it I will certainly claim to have thought up the idea independently of others. This was the first time I had read Juan Cole supporting this idea... but I had only been reading him regularly since July 2005.
Nevertheless, the "Let the UN take over" argument has yet to reach the mainstream press. I've been reading the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and other online newspapers for about 8 months and none of them, to my knowledge, has published an opinion piece that makes this argument. In the mind of many, there are only two options - stay or go.
That's actually the reason why I wrote my November 2005 article. I had been reading left wing blog after left wing blog where people were saying "let's just get out". The lefties at that time had absolutely no idea at all that a third option was feasable - hence the strident tone towards American lefties in the article.
So that's the reason why it is such an improtant suggestion - it just isn't talked about. I doubt that you spend time reading as many left wing blogs as I do, and I can assure you that a UN solution to Iraq is just completely unheard of.
Is the UN capable? Absolutely. Stop thinking of the UN as that building in New York, and instead think of nations around the world.
Would Chinese troops be able to restore order in Iraq? They have 2.25 million troops, which is more than the 1.4 million that the US has. I think that a couple of hundred thousand members of the People's Liberation Army swarming around Iraq, dressed in their Green Uniforms and directing traffic and rebuilding infrastructure would be better at keeping the peace than America troops driving around in Humvees and kicking people as they drive by. The fact that the Chinese are not exactly friendly with America would probably make the Iraqis like them better!
And of course there's the armed forces of India, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Russia and so on. Would these troops be able to work well together to bring peace to Iraq? Better than the yanks I think (and Aussies as well).
I'm sure that, given the opposition that these nations had towards the 2003 invasion, they would only be happy to provide troops to help Iraq and show America how dumb they were.
As for the link to the "Dubya" article - that was erported some months after the invasion took place. The UN had already decided against invading Iraq, and the article you have linked to merely points out the fact that UN involvement at that time would have essentially constituted support for the invasion. Now that the situation in Iraq is FUBAR and most Americans think Bush stuffed up big time, the UN could be brought in to fix up the US mistakes.
cheap wow power leveling buy wow gold cheapest wow power leveling CHEAP wow gold BUY power leveling CHEAPEST wow powerleveling YangQiang
wow goldwow goldwow goldwow gold
Post a Comment