Click here for Part I and Part II of this series.
III.
As we make plans to cut off funds for continuing to prosecute a war in Iraq, America must simultaneously pursue a dramatically different approach to achieve peace. Here is a five point plan to accompany a cut off of funds:
1.Transfer to the United Nations the authority the United States currently excerises in Iraq. This includes: The United States must ask the United Nations, in cooperation with the Iraqi government, to manage the oil assets of Iraq until Iraq is stabilized. The United Nations, in cooperation with the Iraqi government, must handle all the contracts: No more Halliburton sweetheart deals, No contracts to Bush Administration insiders, No contracts to campaign contributors. All contracts must be awarded under transparent conditions. The United States must ask the United Nations to work to sustain Iraqi self-governance, through assistance with development of the rule of law and constitutional governance. The UN will assist in conducting free and fair elections.
2.The United States will finance a UN-sponsored peacekeeping mission in Iraq and enlist the help of other members of the coalition of nations which participated in the Iraq action.
3.UN troops will rotate into Iraq, and all US troops will come home. The United Nations, through its member nations, in cooperation with member nations from the region, will commit 130,000 peacekeepers to Iraq on a temporary basis until the Iraqi people can maintain their own security.
4.The United States must agree to pay for what we destroyed. An Iraq reconstruction fund, monitored by the UN in cooperation with the Iraqi government, must be annually replenished to replace destroyed infrastructure. The United States must pay reparations to the families of innocent Iraqi civilian noncombatants killed and injured in the conflict. The United States must renounce all privatization schemes in Iraq. It is illegal under both the Geneva and the Hague Conventions for any nation to invade another nation, seize its assets, and sell those assets. The Iraqi people, and the Iraqi people alone must have the right to determine the future of their country's resources. All privatization agreements must be subject to review by a special Iraqi assets board set up by the UN with the cooperation of the government of Iraq.
5.The United States will abandon policies of "preemption" and unilateralism and commit to strengthening the UN.
We need a real change. My plan can the troops home in 90 days, transfer authority to the U.N as an intermediate step, with provisions made toward a rapid transition to Iraqi security. Only if the United States takes a new direction will we be able to persuade the world community, through the UN, to participate.