White House: Don't Expect United Nations Help in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030911/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq&cid=540&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON - Just days after the United States began pushing for a new U.N. resolution authorizing a multinational military force for Iraq, senior administration officials are seeking to lower expectations that large offers of foreign troops will be forthcoming.

"The expectation is that we would not get a large additional number of forces as a result of an additional U.N. resolution," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday during a question-and-answer session following a speech at the National Press Club.

Secretary of State Colin Powell made a similar remark at a closed-door briefing for Senate members later Wednesday, according to a Senate aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The aide said Powell told lawmakers the world community is suffering from "donor's fatigue" — an apparent reference to the fact that the United States has made repeated requests for financial aid and peacekeeping commitments in Afghanistan and the Balkans in recent years.

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[Maeve]

1. They can be taught!

Gee, what do you suppose their first clue was? :think:

Donor's fatigue or just don't want to clean up after Dubya? You decide.

[bowens43]

2. Good.

Until the US gives control of Iraq to the security council no money or troops should be provided by member nations.

'donor fatigue' my ass. It's the arrogance of the bush administration that is holding up aid.

[JHB]

3. "Donor's fatigue"

I guess that's Karl's new Shrubspeak for natural reactions to "I still ain't eatn' no crow".

[Flubadubya]

4. Yeah, like I get "donor's fatigue"...

every time someone insults me then asks to borrow money. What a pack-o-maroons!

[Paschall]

25. Donor's fatigue

Whatever it is, Shrub sure was able to overcome it during his recent money-raising vacation.

Maybe we should send him off to do a stump speech at the UN.

It's bound to be a hit if we can just hand-pick the General Assembly first.

[Zech Marquis]

5. no shit guys!

after how you were pissing on the whole world earlier this year, did you really expect anyone ot there to lfit a finger in aid? Well, perhaps THIS finger... 9aw man, what happened to the smilie flipping the bird?) ok, this will have to do then :thumbsdown: :nopity:

[bobd]

6. This is the cusp of their spin on the UN refusal

The cabal is gonna spin this as: "See how worthless the UN is? They won't even help us in our glorious crusade to bring democracy to the planet!"

What's sad is that it'll work too! I saw a poll yesterday (sorry, can't remember where - CNN maybe?) that indicated the opinion of the UN amongst the sheeple was way down. No doubt the cabal is aware of it too and are using it to spin the bum's rush the UN is giving us on our request for cash and cannon fodder.

[w4rma]

7. They are more worried about their political butts than US soldier lives nt

[grftjx]

8. So they are still not admitting defeat, eh?

The US administration will only get support for a new resolution when they give up their plan of forming the future Iraq government according to their interests.

I find it surprising and disturbing that they stick to their plan regardless of the mounting political costs. They must know that they cannot expect to keep up holding the power when they continue to do it alone. "Why are they not afraid of this?" is a question that unnerves me regardless of what possible explanation for this comes to my mind.

[Q]

9. Okay...now the truth:

..The Bushies snubbed their noses at the UN and the very countries they're now asking for help. They wanted THEIR war no matter what the rest of the world thought about it. There was never any 'coalition'. It was the US and Brits.

- What's the result of the arrogant Bush* foreign policy? Not only will we be at war forever...but in debt perpetually.

[calimary]

29. "Not only will we be at war forever...but in debt perpetually."

HEY! THAT'LL make us all safe and secure and strong as a nation, right? Battered and broke. Broken and broke. Wow, little georgie, GREAT job! You sure know how to run things (into the ground).

If I had to run on YOUR record, I'd be running, alright - for cover, outta town somewhere.

[JPace]

10. Could it be that....

watching U.S. troops get slaughtered on a
daily basis might be a turn off to send
their troops in?

Could it be that AWOLs hateful warmongering
anti UN insults have something to do with it?

Could it be that Iraqis want to create their
own destinies and don't want anyone there
might have something to do with it?

[0007]

11. Bush told reporters the money is "worth it."

Exactly the same thing he said about the Texas Rangers. Trading Sammy Sosa was smart?

[robbedvoter]

28. "First time we have a businesman in the WH" someone gushed

in 2001. Yeap. Throw a bridge and a swamp in Florida in that deal, George and it's sold!

[ignatius]

36. That's caue it's not his money. It's OUR

goddamn money that he spends so freely.

He never,ever is aco=countable for anything and this is one huge problem that daddy and his henchmen can't fix.

[Zero Gravitas]

12. Good

Bush* needs to learn that actions have consequences, even for aristocrats such as himself. The American people need to learn that we as a country can't go round smashing countries up just because it makes us feel good and not have to pay the price for doing so.

[newyorican]

13. W screwed the pooch

we're fucked...

[NNN0LHI]

14. This is just more softening up of Americans to accept the coming draft...

...that is inevitable. Yup.

Don

[JNelson6563]

15. and Rummy went on to say

"Because we basically gave our allies a poke in the eye with a dirty stick they're holding a grudge. Is that ok with me? You bet!"

Julie

[htuttle]

16. It's not just because BushCo insulted them (though that didn't help)

Another problem is that there simply aren't enough troops to be had to 'control' Iraq. Even in a best case scenario (ie., if Bush and friends hadn't insulted everyone, and everyone decided to help), they wouldn't be able to get more than 30,000 UN allied troops or so (unless they could get China to send half of it's army). That's nowhere near enough to make a difference.

Iraq is now an intractable problem. The whole rest of the world saw this would happen before the invasion.

The ONLY way I see that Iraq could have transformed into what would be considered a 'liberal democracy', is if the people of Iraq had eventually overthrown Hussein themselves. That's the only way that Hussein could have been deposed without decimating the secular factions needed to form an actual democracy.

As it stands now, I think the best case scenario is a Kurdish state in the North, and an Islamic Republic in the south. The worst case scenario is a lawless, government-less area torn by civil wars and warlords like we've come to associate with Afghanistan and Somalia. As far as the sort of Western Democracy that Wolfowitz says he dreams of in Iraq -- "You can't get there from here."

[calimary]

30. Did he really say that?

That IS what happened, so he'd be telling the truth for a change. But did he really say that? Or am I just taking all this a little too seriously?

[AWD]

17. White House :

White House : UN won't rebuild bridge we burned down

[Beetwasher]

18. Yeah, "Donor's Fatigue"! That's the Ticket! Donors Fatigue!

This admin. has morphed into a John Lovitz parody...

[calimary]

31. Yeah, fatigue alright. As in, they're TIRED OF YOU, george!

[hadrons]

19. bait & switch ... notice how this comes out AFTER the speech/whine ....

[kskiska]

20. Shut up and eat those Freedom Fries, Smirk.

The only way we're getting out of Iraq is when * is out of the White House. If he steals the election again this country is doomed.

[Starpass]

21. I think we are being set up

let me explain. I heard scumbag say in his speech things like "give them an OPPORTUNITY to join us" and "their RESPONSIBILITY". Those aren't concilliatory words. Those are "I'm spitting in your face again, did you notice??". I think they want us to get publicly pissed on so that George can whip up a big hate NATO, hate our allies, hate France and Germany, hate anybody who isn't us, etc. just like that worked for him before. It's his way of blowing smoke in front of his failures. Only this time I believe it will backfire. The people know we are stuck their and paying a fortune for it and it's because of his fucking arrogance to begin with. I detest these failures who are running our nation.

[diplomats]

23. I agree

People don't like the U.N., but they really don't like what's happening in Iraq and the idea of forking over $87 billion more when our economy sucks.

[E_Zapata]

33. Yup - the speech to set the stage to say "UN's fault for soldiers dying

in a guerrilla war. We tried. The french, german and russians have blood on their hands."

The UN had better issue a formal statement why and crucify bush.

[Ganja Ninja]

22. So now this will give them an excuse to...

ask for more money.
I can hear it now, "Eighty Seven Billion was what we expected would be required if we got help from our European allies. We need fifty billion more now that they won't help."

Mark my words it's comming!

[FuseONE]

24. .

"Donor fatigue," hahaha....the stuff these guys come up with.

[robbedvoter]

26. UN status today: irrelevant again. Dang! They looked so good yesterday!

They had their chance to hitch their wagon to W's star but nooooo! They gone missed it agin! Dang furriners!
Best lines:

Asked whether he believed Bush's announced plan to ask Congress for an additional $87 billion,
mostly for postwar Iraq, would fully cover the costs of occupation, Rumsfeld replied, "I'm not in
the budget business."

Bush told reporters the money is "worth it."

Would you buy a used car from this man?

[LEW]

27. I already have a lump in my throat today

that won't go away, and now this....this admin is sooooo screwed up, and is screwing us in the process...

[joanski01]

32. I don't think that

this Administration wants UN help. They want the Middle East resources all for themselves. They suck. When are we going to revolt and get them out of here?

[Kolesar]

37. The US fought for those oil fields, Bushco* will not relinquish them

O-peration
I-raq
L-iberation

[Barrett808]

34. "things in Iraq are going quite well"

Myers, appearing on CBS's "The Early Show," said that "things in Iraq are going quite well. We're winning the battle on terrorism there and we're winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. The reporting coming out of Iraq just doesn't tell the story that's out there."

Unbelievable, shameless, black-is-white propaganda. I'll trust "the reporting" long before I give credence to a word that's uttered by this lying pack of neo-cons.

[qb]

35. *Major League* Big Time CYA

"We tried... we REALLY tried to get that worthless UN to help us out"

[joshdawg]

38. They expected something else???

Bu**sh** and his gang of thugs are full of it!!

[rocktivity]

39. Lower WHOSE expectations?

Mine have been lowered since The Pretzel-Dunce took office. But what really nailed them down was Colin Powell's half-hearted presentation to the UN prefaced by his "You will find that this evidence is IRREFUTABLE!"

Much to the Bush Regime's surprise, the Iraqi UN bombing DIDN'T result in cries of "You were right! Where do we enlist in the war on terror?" (You didn't let THAT happen on purpose, did you?) Plan B was to have the Pretzel-Dunce read a speech about how the UN had a "responsibility" to help out. That went over like a led zeppelin, too. So what's Plan C, guys?


rocknation