LONDON -- The United Nations will only play a marginal role in postwar Iraq. The "transitional" administration will remain firmly in American hands, with some British, Australian and other coalition-member support, until there is an Iraqi government ready to take over the new Iraq. A hopeful estimate is that this will take about three months.
To some this may seem regrettable and unbalanced. Others may denounce it as hegemonic, or in the curiously old-fashioned language of the far left, "imperialist." Nevertheless, like it or not, that is what is going to happen.
Major Gen. Jay Garner, the nominated American proconsul, is now moving his 300-strong team of planners and future governors from Kuwait on to Iraqi soil and will be moving into Baghdad itself before many weeks are out. Intensely detailed work has been going on focused on every aspect of civil administration and reconstruction.