The Bush administration may be strong but its muscle is not always enough to prevent anarchy.

A truck bomb smuggled into a police compound exploded on Tuesday near the office of Hassan Ali, the US-appointed police chief of Baghdad, leaving one officer dead and 28 others wounded.

Ali, a key ally of the US-led occupying authorities, was not in his office when the bomb went off in a parking lot about 6 meters from his window.

The detonation of the fourth car bomb in a month reinforced a common perception that the US occupying troops cannot protect either themselves or the public from the post-war chaos.

Worse, four months into the occupation, a scorching Iraq is still waiting for reliable supplies of power and clean water.

Washington had expected that outrage over the bombing of the UN compound would make the Security Council amenable to a resolution to broaden the US-led coalition in Iraq. Washington also wants more countries to provide financial assistance and help with police training to beef up security to bring stability to Iraq.

However, the White House has made clear that it will not cede any of its decision-making power in Iraq. This evinces its ambition to continue to keep Iraq under its firm control.

The legitimacy of that control itself is doubtful as it is founded on the basis of an illegal war unauthorized by the UN.

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

France, India, Russia and other countries have ruled out sending soldiers to Iraq unless a multinational force is authorized by the UN.

The opposition is not surprising given the strong stand by the Security Council against the US decision to wage war in Iraq without the council's blessing.

Michel Duclos, France's deputy ambassador to the UN, said the current impasse would not exist had a genuine international partnership been established under UN guidance to sort out the mess in Iraq.

Sharing the burden and the responsibilities in a world of equal and sovereign nations would also imply sharing decision-making and authority.

The UN should not merely be put "back in the game" but also play a pivotal role in the reconstruction and democratization of Iraq.
 
(China Daily September 4, 2003)