Okay, slap down might be a little over the top, but it's damn close to the truth.
While aWol and Co. are crowing about their diplomatic victory in the UN, what they are not saying is that basically the UN had its way with them. No money. No troops. And kindly get the hell out of there as soon as possible. Some victory.
Meanwhile, the Senate voted 51-47 to make half of BushCo.'s $20B Iraq rebuilding funds a loan, repayable by the Iraqis. This has the potential to sink the entire appropriation in committee - or at least slow it down significantly.
It's a good thing that the UN voted through this resolution, especially as written. It gives international impetus to the Bush administration to speed up its transition of power to an Iraqi government. It also, I think, gives the UN some leverage in other areas as well; specifically on getting command of "coalition forces" under a coalition command and getting the Iraqi constitution written and approved sooner rather than later.
I don't think that the "loan" provision will ever fly. It will get shot down or modified in committee. But the statement is more important than the provision actually being implemented. I think it would be wrong to saddle the Iraqis with the bill for our audacity, they should be able to make a clean, unburdened start.
We will, of course, see how both of these things are handled by BushCo. in the next several days. Already administration officials are touting the UN resolution as a huge victory (as if they really care what comes out of such a "useless" and "irrelevant" body). And although the loan provision has made the news, so far there hasn't been much rumbling from the usual right-wing mouthpieces.
Is this further detritus falling from the facade of a crumbling administration?
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