BUSH GOETH BEFORE THE FALL

Just as the Bushies were taking measured steps towards doing the Right Thing -- asking the UN and the international community for help in Iraq -- whoops! Nevermind!

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, encountering U.N. Security Council resistance, may not seek a resolution giving the U.N.'s blessing for the deployment of additional foreign forces in Iraq, U.S. officials say.

Four days after Secretary of State Colin Powell made a pitch for council backing of his call for more forces, U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte acknowledged on Monday, "We're nowhere near a resolution on Iraq."

One of the main sticking point appears to have been control of international forces. The US wanted complete command of all forces, while Kofi Annan saw it differently.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday the United Nations could not send a peacekeeping force to Iraq but added that he could not exclude a council decision "to transform the operation into a U.N.-mandated multinational force operating on the ground with other governments coming in."

He stressed that U.N. approval for such a force "would also imply not just burden-sharing but also sharing decision and responsibility with the others."

"If that doesn't happen, I think it's going to be very difficult to get a second resolution that will satisfy everybody," the secretary-general said.

Powell has made clear that Washington won't cede any of its decision-making powers in Iraq.

The US has bungled just about every aspect of the "postwar" period in Iraq, and the situation would be improved if put in international hands. Of course, that would go against the PNAC vision that Cheney's lil' black heart flutters for (clear! *zap!*), and it sure wouldn't help them get that oil pipeline to Israel set up. (that news comes straight out of the "crazy or stupid? you decide" department)