One Year Later, Bush Will Sing Softer Tune At U.N.

Monday, September 22, 2003

Islam Online

& News Agencies

Bush, meanwhile, has other matters to consider. The occupation is costing one billion dollars per week. The guerrilla war has already killed more U.S. soldiers than the invasion of the country. And with a re-election battle looming next year, a Newsweek poll on Saturday showed Bush's approval rating on Iraq had fallen below 50 percent for the first time. Bush now has the approval of only 46 percent of the U.S. public. These figures will lend new urgency when Bush addresses the U.N. Assembly and meets privately this week with Chirac, Schroeder, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

UNITED NATIONS -- IOL
U.S. President George W. Bush faces a tricky task at the United Nations this week when he comes to seek help in Iraq, a year after thumbing his nose at the world body over the war on Iraq.

Bush will ask for troops and money from an institution he last year said risked becoming irrelevant on the international stage by deciding not to back the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Bush invaded and occupied Iraq without any U.N.resolution authorizing the attack.

And, in a speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, September 23, he will tell the international community he has no regrets about going to war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"I will make it clear that I made the right decision and the others that joined us made the right decision," he told Fox News Channel in an interview broadcast Monday, September 22. "The world is a better place without Saddam Hussein."

But Bush will face lingering anger over the Iraq crisis, which U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said this month had "shaken the system" and underscored the need for radical changes if the U.N. wanted to retain its authority.

Diplomats say there is a genuine desire at U.N. headquarters to avoid a replay of the bitter divisions that scarred the U.N. Security Council ahead of the war but it remains unclear if consensus can be reached on what to do next.

"I think there is broad agreement," one Council source said. "But the devil is in the details."

Washington has proposed a draft U.N. resolution that would authorize the deployment of multinational troops in Iraq. But it has met with resistance from France and Germany, who want a rapid timetable for a return to Iraqi sovereignty and an expanded U.N. role in the oil-rich country.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has already ruled out the French-German proposals as "unrealistic," setting the stage for another standoff between Washington and its erstwhile European allies.

French President Jacques Chirac told Annan late Sunday, September 21, that France would participate in the discussions on the draft resolution "in an open, constructive manner," a spokeswoman for the French president said.

France would not veto the resolution but it would abstain from voting if the resolution did not include a key role for the United Nations in Iraq and a timetable for a prompt return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, Chirac said in an interview Monday with The New York Times.

* "I'm Not So Sure We Have To"

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Interesting prediction. But I didn’t see a particularly “soft sing” in his address,

Dan