REBUILDING WITHOUT UN

REBUILDING WITHOUT UN: Reuters reports that the Administration is willing to finance the rebuilding of Iraq without UN assistance if it comes to that. Which leads to two obvious questions:

1. If the UN won’t pony up for a humanitarian relief operation, what continued usefulness would it serve?

2. Why can’t Iraq pay for its own rebuilding effort? Granted, they’ll need immediate assistance once the war ends. But it’s a very wealthy country, thanks to oil resources (discovered and made possible by the US and UK, oddly enough) that will be fully exploitable once the sanctions against Saddam’s regime are lifted. They’ll need help from the international community in terms of technical, medical, and other advice. They shouldn’t need our money, too.

FILED UNDER: Iraq War, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.