[ OUR OPINION ]

U.N. neutrality suited
for rebuilding Iraq

THE ISSUE The Pentagon has been put in charge of rebuilding Iraq, but the U.N.'s role is unclear.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair was successful in persuading President Bush at their recent Belfast summit to accept a "vital" United Nations role in the rebuilding of Iraq, but Bush has not said what that means. If the president wants to avoid further branding of the United States as an arrogant and isolationist bully -- and by Iraqis as an occupation force -- he will accept a lead role for the U.N., applying its experience in a number of other countries that needed rebuilding.

The U.S. military was swift and forceful in bringing the Iraq war to an end, but it was ill-prepared for the looting and chaos -- what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed as "untidiness" -- after the shooting stopped. Suspicions were confirmed among many Iraqis when U.S. troops provided heavy protection to the Oil Ministry but not to hospitals and the national museum. Those suspicions have been furthered by the awarding of contracts to administration friends such as Bechtel and Halliburton corporations.

The U.N. has made impressive progress in recent years not only in its humanitarian programs but in political and physical reconstruction. After struggling to cope with conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia and Somalia, the U.N. heeded the advice of Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria in providing its forces with sufficient troop strength and decision-making authority.

Brahimi has earned praise for his role as the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, where he has put those lessons into action. Much of the praise has been for his adeptness in allowing Afghans to make important decisions with the help of U.N. expertise and funding.

Through its Oil for Food program, the U.N. has been providing 480,000 tons of food per month in Iraq at 45,000 distribution points. That program was aimed at relieving conditions resulting from the economic sanctions on Iraq. With those sanctions lifted, the program's future has been placed in limbo. Its authorization expires May 12.

The Bush administration agrees that the U.N. should play a key role in providing humanitarian aid to Iraq. But the Defense Department has been put in charge of building a new political system and reconstructing power grids, roads, dams, hospitals and schools. The White House inclination to "go it alone" worked well when it came to military action, but the Pentagon is ill-suited to perform the task at hand.