The U.S. and Europe still march in different directions

[struggle4progress]

The Bush administration now has the new Iraqi government it wanted, and on Tuesday it obtained more or less the United Nations Security Council mandate it sought. Where this will take Iraq during the rest of the year, and the United States with it, remains uncertain. The government is transparently an American creation.

The new government's credibility among Iraqis, as one "man on the street" there noted, is that "it can't be worse than Saddam Hussein." The UN special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, has politely repudiated it, observing that it conforms to the wishes of L. Paul Bremer 3rd, "the dictator of Iraq."

Brahimi added that he was sure that Bremer would not mind being so designated.

Accordingly, it must be asked whether this leaves Washington better off than it was before. The Bush administration, which has badly wanted help on the ground in Iraq, finds itself isolated, so far as the Middle East is concerned. International indignation toward Washington's Iraq policy has been replaced by international apathy.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/524139.html