Say "Uncle," Sam
I always figured the it to be in EVERY other nation's best interest to let the USofA, the most powerful nation, break itself on Iraq, one of the least. Yielding being shown the only way not to break is almost as good to them. And now the world know the limits of the USofA's power. I doubt that was the intent. Giving up a chunk of economic control is probably pretty painful, ego-wise, to the neocons. Still, if they fully control how "the New Iraq" is structured, long term it will pay off.
U.S. Set to Cede Part of Control Over Aid to Iraq
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
BANGKOK, Oct. 19 -- Under pressure from potential donors, the Bush administration will allow a new agency to determine how to spend billions of dollars in reconstruction assistance for Iraq, administration and international aid officials say.
The new agency, to be independent of the American occupation, will be run by the World Bank and the United Nations. They are to announce the change at a donor conference in Madrid later this week.
The change effectively establishes some of the international control over Iraq that the United States opposed in the drafting of the United Nations Security Council resolution that passed on Thursday. That resolution referred to two previously established agencies devised to ensure that all aid would be monitored and audited.
But diplomats say other countries were unwilling to make donations because they saw the United States as an occupying power controlling Iraq's reconstruction and self-rule.
