It doesn't make sense, though, to compare the tail end of the Vietnam War (or even the tail end of the French-Indochina war) with the Iraqi present, i.e., the beginning of US (and perhaps soon US-led "UN") colonization of Iraq. If anything, comparison ought to be made between capacities of Vietnamese resistance in the beginning of French colonization of Indochina with those of Iraqi resistance today, i.e. in the beginning of US (perhaps soon US-led "UN") colonization. Needless to say, Iraqis today are far better organized than the Vietnamese in 1884 and even in 1930 when the Vietnamese Communist Party was founded in Hong Kong (recall that Ho Chi Minh couldn't even return to Vietnam until 1941). Anyhow, an Iraqi political formation capable of unifying the nation, freeing it from foreign occupiers, and forming a legitimate government after the occupiers' withdrawal will come only out of Iraqi resistance to the occupation.
At 5:45 AM -0700 7/23/03, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>The steps are: (1) Contact UN/Arab League, give them a date they
>have to take over and a budget, and the same time as we (2) begin
>withdrawal. (3) Coordinate our withdrawal and their insertion, and
>(4) begin to pay the new administration compensation. (5) Complete
>withdrawal. What's the anti-imperialist objection?
The objection is that (A) the US government, in the real world, won't contact the UN Security Council except to extract diplomatic legitimations and international military reinforcements to make its occupation of Iraq (hopefully) a little cheaper and a little more bearable for US taxpayers and that (B) France, Russia, China, and of course the UK are happy to oblige the US:
***** POLITICS: U.N. Faulted for Legitimising Iraqi Governing Council By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 22 (IPS) - The United Nations provided a semblance of legitimacy to the recently U.S.-appointed, 25-member Iraqi Governing Council when three of its senior officials participated in a meeting of the Security Council.
But the meeting was briefly disrupted Tuesday by two members of an anti-war U.S. group, the International Occupation Watch Centre (IOWC), who shouted at the Iraqi delegates, accusing them of representing an "illegal Council hand-picked by the United States".
Gael Murphy, one of the protesters who was dragged from the visitor's gallery by U.N. security guards, dismissed the Governing Council and its three-member delegation as frauds.
"The United Nations should not have endorsed the Governing Council," Murphy told IPS. "This is another example of the continued collusion of the United Nations with the United States."
She was also critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan who, in his address to the Security Council Tuesday, described the Governing Council as "an important first step towards the full restoration of Iraqi sovereignty".
Murphy said the Governing Council, whose members have been described as "American puppets", was the creation of the United States and did not represent the will of the 27 million Iraqis.
"Moreover," she said, "How can the United Nations give legitimacy to a Governing Council, three of whose members are being investigated by Interpol (the international anticrime agency)?"
Murphy also said that two other members of the Governing Council are known to have their own private militias in Baghdad.
"The credibility of the United Nations has been undermined," she said.
The three-member delegation to the Security Council included Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister, Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the London-based Iraqi National Congress, and Aquila al-Hashimi, a diplomat who served in the foreign ministry under the former Saddam Hussein regime.
Murphy said that it was common knowledge that one of the members of the Iraqi delegation to the Security Council was a "convicted criminal" in Jordan. "If this is an indication of democracy -- as preached by the United States -- Iraq is in deep trouble."...
The United Nations, he [Annan] said, will continue to play an active role in facilitating and supporting the political process, working together with the Governing Council, and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) which is in charge of the civil administration of post-war Iraq....
Endorsing the U.S.-created institution, [Sergio] Vieira de Mello [Annan's Special Representative in Iraq] said that the formation of Iraq's Governing Council "was a significant step towards that goal" [of providing security, instituting the rule of law, restoring basic services, etc.].
The Council, he said, will soon be appointing Iraqi interim ministers and -- more importantly -- designating Iraqi representation at international bodies such as the United Nations....
<http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=19352> *****
That's the UN Security Council in the real world, an instrument of US imperialism on the cheap, giving a cover of diplomatic legitimacy to what the USG has already done or is planning on doing. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>