[Peace-discuss] WHO APPOINTED BUSH GOD?

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

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September 23, 2003
Bush Won't Agree to Quick Iraq Handover
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 12:33 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush in his U.N. speech Tuesday will resist 
French and German pressures for a quick surrender of U.S. authority in Iraq, top 
aides said. American and European diplomats worked behind the scenes to draft a 
compromise on the pace of a handover.

The president cited ``good progress'' in Iraq as he met with two visiting 
Iraqi ministers in the Oval Office on the eve of his speech. His national 
security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, criticized any plans to rush the transfer of 
power, saying it must come in ``an orderly process.''

``The French plan, which would somehow transfer sovereignty to an unelected 
group of people, just isn't workable,'' she told reporters.

According to diplomats familiar with early drafts and discussions, a draft 
Security Council resolution backing a multinational occupation force, circulated 
by American officials, won't specifically meet French demands for a timetable 
on the handover.

Instead, it will call on the 25-member U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council to 
come up with a timetable of its own -- a compromise that may satisfy the 
French only if a framework for such a timetable is agreed upon privately ahead of 
time.

U.S. officials were talking with European allies to work out the pace of any 
handover of authority, diplomats said. It remained unclear, they said, how the 
United States would handle French and German desires for the United Nations 
to oversee the process and to be given a larger role in the management of 
Iraq's transition to democracy.

Bush worked Monday on the final draft of his speech, which he will deliver to 
the General Assembly around 10:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday. He planned to urge 
U.N. members, including those who opposed the war, to work together on 
reconstruction and to put aside past differences.

The president also met with two officials from Iraq chosen by the Governing 
Council, Public Works Minister Nesreen Berwari and Electricity Minister Ayham 
Sameraei. Both agreed with the administration's contention that more time is 
needed before Iraqis receive full self-control.

``We only need help in the beginning and then we'll do it ourselves,'' said 
Berwari. The two are part of an Iraqi delegation seeking to claim Iraq's U.N. 
seat on Tuesday.

Sameraei predicted that the country would stabilize so that America could 
withdraw its troops ``within a few years.''

``These two good souls found that the system they inherited was not conducive 
for taking care of the citizens,'' Bush said. ``I love their spirit. I love 
the fact that they are dedicated to doing their jobs.''

``I also appreciate the appraisal of what's going on in Iraq, the assessment 
that we're making good progress toward achieving our objectives,'' Bush said.

But the administration's attempts to win support for the new resolution were 
complicated by fresh criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin and 
French President Jacques Chirac.

Putin said America's failure to stabilize Iraq had reinforced his belief that 
the war had been a bad idea.

And Chirac called for quick transfer of civilian control to the Iraqis. He 
said France would vote in favor of the resolution only if it had a deadline and 
included a key role for the United Nations.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, however, said coalition forces had to remain 
in charge ``until such time as we allow the Iraqi people to determine how 
they wish to be governed, with a constitution, and to then select those who 
govern them.''

Talking to reporters outside the United Nations, Powell said the Bush 
administration intends to follow ``a deliberate and well-considered plan to get to 
the point that we all want to get to, and that is to give Iraq and the Iraqi 
people full authority for their own destiny and their own hopes and dreams.

``What we don't want to do is set them up for a failure by jump-starting the 
process or trying to do something now which is absolutely unrealistic,'' 
Powell said.

Following material EMBARGOED for use at 12:01 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

In his prepared address for Tuesday's meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi 
Annan will call on the international community to take ``the extra time and 
patience'' to reach a consensus on Iraq that is ``coherent and workable'' -- and 
to use the same process of deliberation to resolve the other global crises 
confronting the world.

``Let me reaffirm the great importance I attach to a successful outcome in 
Iraq,'' Annan's speech says. ``Subject to security considerations, the United 
Nations system is prepared to play its full part in working for a satisfactory 
outcome in Iraq, and to do so as part of an effort by the whole international 
community.''

END EMBARGOED MATERIAL.

In a lethal reminder of the continuing unrest in Iraq, a car bomber killed an 
Iraqi policeman and himself and injured 19 other people outside the U.N. 
headquarters in Baghdad on Monday. The attack came a month after a deadly bombing 
there that killed 23 people, including the U.N.'s top envoy.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush also would call on U.N. 
members to support continuing reconstruction in Afghanistan, stemming the 
spread of weapons of mass destruction and ending slavery and other forms of human 
exploitation.

L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, said he opposed any quick 
transfer of power to the Iraqis.

``No appointed government, not even one as honest and dedicated as the Iraqi 
Governing Council, can have the legitimacy necessary today to take on the 
difficult issues Iraqis face as they write their constitution and elect a 
government,'' Bremer told a congressional committee. ``The only path to full Iraqi 
sovereignty is through a written constitution, ratified and followed by free, 
democratic elections.''

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