Leaving Iraq

The Bush administration has recently started calling for some UN support in Iraq, although there are lots of details to be worked out and France and others still remain unwilling to endorse UN action. One major issue is the timetable for turning over power to Iraqis, with the US unwilling to do so too quickly while some Iraqis (even our supposed friends) and others wanting it to go much faster.

Yesterday, I blogged about this topic in a general way, suggesting that the Iraqis are as yet incapabale of managing security without US help. Today, two pieces in the Washington Post agree with this view. First, the lead editorial argues that too quick a US pullout would be an error.

More trenchantly, however, Fareed Zakaria not only argues that we should stay longer, but points out the fallacy that the UN would (or should) be any quicker:

It is strange that U.N. officials argue that we must quickly move, in Kofi Annan's phrase, from "the logic of occupation" to that of Iraqi sovereignty. The United Nations has blessed and assisted in the occupation of Bosnia, where it took seven years to transfer power to the locals. It boasts of "the logic of occupation" in Kosovo, which has gone smoothly for the past four years, with no prospect of ending anytime soon. It administered tiny East Timor for two years before handing over power. Does Kofi Annan really think that what took seven years in Bosnia can take one year in Iraq, with six times as many people?

Short lesson: You can't go from dictatorship to democracy in a few weeks. This enterprise will take some time if it is to be done right, and the cost of doing it wrong are too high to contemplate. So please, everyone, a few deep breaths . . .
- posted by Anonymous @ 9:05 AM