The Bush administration in a shameless about face is scrambling to garner UN participation in what for them is becoming an increasingly embarrassing debacle in Iraq. After calling the UN irrelevant because it did not rubber stamp his aggression and planned pillage of Iraq, Bush now finds himself in deep do-do. Militarily, he faces stiffening Iraqi resistance, mounting US casualties, domestic fall out from the war’s increasing costs, internal strife which is threatening to turn Iraq into full blown guerrilla war ,and a major PR and propaganda headache to put a positive spin on an obviously poorly planned occupational strategy. 

Bush and Co. are preparing to bribe the UN and any nation willing to risk partnering in his quagmire in Iraq. Seeing his re-election chances sinking as the occupation costs and casualties escalate, Bush is forced to eat crow and persuade France and Germany to back his new plan for UN inclusion in the “reconstruction” of Iraq. For their part “Old Europe” has been cool towards Bush’s overtures preferring to make him sweat and squirm as they parley theirs votes as veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council while they press for an even wider role for the UN in Iraq. 

For public consumption Bush talks about “giving the UN a role in the reconstruction of Iraq.” Behind the scenes Bush and Co. are desperately seeking ways to minimize their costs of the Iraqi occupation and extricate themselves from the folly and deepening negative consequences of their “go it alone, winner take all” policies.

Foolishly listening to their own trumped up intelligence and exiled Iraqi dissidents who told them what they wanted to hear in return for promises of power and support once Saddam Hussein was overthrown -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Co now find themselves having to face the reality that imperialism and nation molding on a grand scale are not the same as doing little stuff like undermining the economy of a country or covert regime change like they are attempting in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. 

Most of the media  focus has been on Iraq because their lies came unraveled immediately not finding any WMD. But the media has yet to address the situation in Afghanistan where the country has deteriorated to the point the only turf the US forces control is the capital and that is precarious. 

The US media keeps the AmeriKKKan public asleep and ignorant of what is really going on in Afghanistan and is doing the best it can to minimize the travesty in Iraq. Unfortunately for Bush the world is watching and they see how inept his plan is. 

Ahmed Chalabi -- the wanna-be president of Iraq and his Iraqi National Congress, a creation of an AmeriKKKan PR firm -- sold Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz on the idea that US troops would be warmly welcomed and greeted with rose petals. Instead the Iraqis resent their presence and want them out. The US handpicked the ruling Iraqi Council but the inter-and-intra factional intrigue Saddam Hussein ruthlessly kept in check is erupting in the puppet council selected by the US.  

Tensions are mounting: resistance is growing despite of or perhaps because of the conspicuous shows of force by the US invaders (like the displaying of the bodies Hussein’s sons  in blatant disrespect of Muslim tradition) and vital services and a sense of normalcy have not returned to the country. Anger and chaos abound and the resistance forces are astutely taking advantage of the situation.

Bush and Co. are committed to occupying and permanently controlling Iraq. They never developed an exit scenario (remember the US has kept troops in Europe and Japan for fifty years!). However they were stunned by the level and effectiveness of the resistance which is growing daily. The only way to save face and still accomplish their objectives of expropriating Iraqi oil and establishing US hegemony in the region is to persuade the UN to join their imperialistic quicksand party.

POSITIVELY  BLACK, 9/11/03