“You said you’d never compromise, but now you realize as you stare into the vacuum of his eyes, and ask him, ‘Do you want to make a deal?'” sang Bob Dylan in his 1965 song “Like a Rolling Stone.” Ah, Dylan, always putting words in my mouth, even when it comes to politics.
According to CBSNews.com, United Nations inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction were frustrated in February with American tips that led nowhere. Then U.S. President George W. Bush did not allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq in April because the U.S. military took over the search. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “Both the White House and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said they saw no role in post-war Iraq for the U.N. weapons inspection teams.”
Biting the hand that feeds us, anyone?
Now Bush wants U.N. help rebuilding Iraq. In a Sept. 23 U.N. address, Bush praised the U.N.’s work in Iraq as “vital and effective.” He also said, “As in the aftermath of other conflicts, the United Nations should assist in developing a constitution, training civil servants, and conducting free and fair elections.”
While it seems nice on the surface that Bush has asked the U.N.’s assistance, the contradiction only evidences his apparent arrogance. Before the war, he ignored the fact that the U.N. had found no weapons of mass destruction, and persisted in the search with the U.S.’s own troops. Many nations in the U.N. advised against war with Iraq, but, once again, Bush persisted.
Now in the aftermath, Bush seeks the help of the very organization he once ignored so conveniently, and it doesn’t seem very likely that securing this help will come easily.
Speeches given during the 58th session of the U.N. General Assembly condemned U.S. policy. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized Bush for “bullying” and contrasted Bush’s approach with the cooperative approaches of past U.S. presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton.
Bush has put himself in the position of a child asking his parents to fix something he broke. What will Bush do if the U.N. doesn’t clean up his mess?
Dylan Grayson is a first-year.