McFreedom

Was listening to Forum, the local NPR call-in show in the Bay Area, while I was doing my Nordic Tracking, this morning. It's really a great combination, since the NT gets my heart rate up and Forum gets my blood pressure up. The topic this morning was Saddam Hussein, with no guests. Imagine "Open Line Friday" on "Rush Limbaugh" but with insane left-wingers instead of insane right-wingers. If you feel your blood pressure is too low, you can listen to the whole thing around here. Inexplicably, they don't seem to have permanent links to individual programs, but you can navigate to the 12/16/03 program and listen to the 9:00 hour. You could also hit yourself in the head repeatedly with a baseball bat. I'm not sure which action I'd suggest as being less painful.

Many of the callers (the ones who weren't espousing conspirancy theories, anyway) felt that this was the perfect opportunity for the UN to get involved. Never mind, of course, that our failure to capture Saddam meant, a week ago, that it was now time for the UN to get involved. Whatever happens, it's now time for the UN to get involved.

All of this completely ignores the fact that the reason the UN left Iraq is because they were unable to accept the casualties they were taking there. As the New York Times notes, "In his report to the Security Council last week, Mr. Annan ruled out a swift United Nations return to Iraq because of the dangers there." Al Qaeda and the Baathists have surely learned that bloodying the nose of the United Nations results in a swift retreat. It is not possible that a returned UN presence would not be the target of choice for any terrorists hoping to dislodge the West's foothold in the Middle East.

What I'd like to hear from Mr. Dean and others in his corner, is how they plan to strengthen the UN's spine before it returns to Baghdad - or what their plan is to shore up Iraq after the international community inevitably flees with its tail between its legs. Again. For better or for worse, this situation is of our making. Mr. Dean feels that our deposing Mr. Hussein was a terrible mistake, making much worse in the region. While I dispute that notion, I think his proposed solution is even more ridiculous. He somehow thinks we'll gain international prestige by saying, "This is our mess, now you clean it up." If the Coalition should not have invaded Iraq alone, then the Coalition alone should be responsible for reconstructing Iraq.

On the other hand, if the war in Iraq was a legitimate international effort, we should feel no shame in asking for help from those that have shirked their responsibilities. I'm sure we'd take all the honest help we can get. But allies - or international agencies - who cut and run at the first sign of trouble are worse than no allies at all.