Fred Kaplan (Slate) writes, about the Fallujah killings:
If there is a way to deal with the insurgents, it will be fundamentally political — and it will have to take shape in the next few months. Two things are necessary. First, the occupying “coalition” must be broadened, and the occupation authority must be turned over to some international body. The Bush administration seems to realize this — hence Bremer’s recent urgent calls for the United Nations to mediate internal disputes in Iraq. Will an international organization — the U.N., NATO, the Arab League, or whatever — be more effective than the U.S.-led CPA? Maybe, maybe not. But it would be more legitimate. . . .
I don’t get this. It wasn’t the French who killed the four contractors. It wasn’t the U.N. It wasn’t anyone who cares about “legitimacy.” Would Islamist radicals behave any differently if NATO were controlling the show rather than the U.S.? Would the ex-Baathists? Would even the local supporters of the killers support them any less if NATO were in charge?
Now it is possible that the Islamists and ex-Baathists would be more open to the Arab League’s running the occupation theory. (It’s also conceivable that the same would be true if the U.N. were running it, but I highly doubt it.) But is there any reason to think that the Arab League will actually provide remotely effective security? That it would fairly treat the Shiites and the Sunni, and for that matter the non-Arab Kurds? That parts of it won’t be infiltrated by the Baathists or the Islamists? Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe I’m underestimating the competence and reliability of Arab League. But I don’t think so.
Legitimacy is not an end in itself, at least in this situation. It is a means towards effective peace-keeping, which of course means to the extent necessary, effective war-making (since even the most “legitimate” body will have to hunt down those people who keep fighting against them). I don’t see how any of the other examples that Kaplan points to will be more effective.
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