WASHINGTON — The U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq has become the latest senior member of the Bush administration to say Washington should go back to the United Nations for help in bringing post-war control to Iraq.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell opened the door to a possible U.N. resolution handing some decision-making over to other countries in return for their troops in the country where beleaguered Americans continue to take casualties.
But there are those within the Bush inner circle known to be resisting the option, arguing it would be a humiliation to head back to the international body, which the government shunned in its zeal to remove Saddam Hussein from power, particularly if it was needed to bring war opponents France and Germany into the equation.
Bush, in the run-up to launching the Iraqi war in March, said the U.N. risked slipping into irrelevancy as an impotent debating society.
Administrator Paul Bremer, in a series of interviews here, sought to assure the nation that the 160,000 troops on the ground, 147,000 of them Americans, can bring order to Iraq, where, he said, he believes Saddam is still living.
But he said the U.N. option could be the way to bring in much-needed troops to Iraq from India, as well bringing France, Germany and Russia to the table.
"Provided it can be done in a way that is useful, and if that makes it easier for people like the Indians to provide troops, and other countries to provide troops," Bremer said, "then we ought to pursue that option."
Washington was particularly stung last week by India's refusal to send 17,000 troops without U.N. authorization.
The Indian contribution would have been the second-largest behind the U.S.
Thirty-seven American soldiers, including two yesterday, have been killed since President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat May 1.
Since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March — 151 American soldiers have been killed in hostile action, surpassing the number of American casualties in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
When all deaths are included, tallying accidental fatalities and perhaps as many as seven suicides, 89 Americans have perished in Iraq since Bush declared the war over aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Bremer, in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, said about 85 per cent of American deaths are contained to a small part of the country and the overwhelming part of Iraq is now under American control.
"The death of the American servicemen is obviously a tragedy," he said, "but what we're faced with here is a small group of killers, trained killers, who are basically trying to hold back the tide of history in Iraq.
"And the tide of history is flowing towards democracy. These are people who are ex-Baathists, Fedayeen Saddam, ex-people in the intelligence community there, and we simply have to overpower them, and we will."
Bremer said Americans should prepare for a lengthy stay in Iraq.
"It's clear that, given the size of the task, we're going to be there for a while," he said.
"I don't know how many years.''
He also said he believed Saddam was alive and in Iraq.
"The sooner we can either kill him or capture him, the better, because the fact that his fate is unknown certainly gives his supporters the chance to go around and try to rally support for him."
Bremer, however, told Fox News Sunday, that he cannot fathom whether Saddam thinks he can make a comeback.
"I've been reading German history — Adolph Hitler, as late as the 23rd of April, 1945, two days before he committed suicide, was still ordering phantom divisions around in Germany under the impression that they still existed.
"So this kind of a mind is very difficult to understand," he said.
On Meet the Press, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, said Washington must go back to the United Nations and win a resolution to bring troops from other countries into Iraq.
Biden, who has recently returned from Iraq, said the U.S. has three options: It can continue to take the casualties and keep it as an overwhelmingly American occupation; it can replace American troops with an international contingent; or it can leave and lose Iraq.
"It's a very simple answer. The middle option is the only option," he said.
Biden said Iraq urgently needs 5,500 more police and 25,000 more troops, and the only way to do that is under United Nations auspices.
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