Saddam's pal speaks.

The French president said at a European Union summit he would "not accept" a resolution that "would legitimize the military intervention (and) would give the belligerents the powers to administer Iraq."

"That would justify the war after the event," Chirac told reporters.

How does he reach that conclusion? Acknowledging the existence of a war does not legitimize it. Recognizing the fact that Hussein has been defeated militarily and that what civil authority there was in Iraq (see this or this for examples of the exercise of Saddam's civil authority) has evaporated with his rule says nothing about whether Hussein should have been attacked in the first place.

Back to Yahoo:

At the summit, British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged his 14 colleagues to support a new U.N. resolution authorizing a post-Saddam "civil authority in Iraq."

Britain has not yet introduced such a Security Council resolution, however.

If I were Bush, I would not be happy that Blair is even thinking about going to the UN. Again.

Yahoo:

Neither the United States nor Britain has stated publicly that it was planning to seek Security Council authorization to administer postwar Iraq. Chirac's comments appeared to be aimed at putting Washington and London on notice that France would oppose, and probably veto, any such resolution.

Fine by me. Having abdicated its responsibility to disarm Iraq, the UN should not be allowed to expand its authority (which is to bureaucrats as heroin is to a junkie) by governing post Saddam Iraq.

Yahoo:

The majority of the 15 Security Council members would probably favor installing a U.N. administration in Iraq, similar to the U.N. administration now running Kosovo. That possibility has been discussed in the corridors of U.N. headquarters in New York.

Might I take this opportunity to remind you just how well the tender mercies of UN administration have served that other group in the Middle East?

From the UN website:

The General Assembly adopted in November 1948 its first resolution on providing assistance to Palestine refugees. In response to a report of Acting Mediator Ralph Bunche that "the situation of the refugees is now critical", it established United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees (UNRPR). During its brief existence, UNRPR channelled emergency assistance to refugees from Palestine through international voluntary agencies.

...In December 1949, ...[the General Assembly] ... established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to succeed UNRPR and to carry out refugee-related activities in collaboration with local Governments.

If you want Iraq to look like Gaza and the West Bank 54 years from now, by all means, give the problem to the UN to "solve." Can you say suicide bombers, kleptocrats and petrodollars three times all in the same breath?

And that doesn't even take into account the necessity of punishing the French for their idiotic ploy in blocking an eighteenth resolution on Iraq.

 
This is the guy the anti war guys want left in power:

The only area where Saddam can rely with confidence on the loyalty of his security forces is in the Ba'ath party's heartland around Baghdad. In an attempt to reassert his authority Saddam last week issued a directive ordering Iraqi officials not to give up their positions and flee the country.

To set an example, members of Saddam's security forces arrested a civil servant in the al-Hurriyya suburb of Baghdad on suspicion of preparing to leave the country. The unfortunate official was then tied to a pole in the street and passers-by were ordered to watch as his tongue was cut out and he was left to bleed to death.

From the Telegraph.

Question: Does this new directive apply to such human shields as might desire to leave the country? They are "Iraqi officials" in a sense.