September 22, 2003 - President Bush will address the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow and the early line has it that he will tell the international body again that it must participate in the American led conquest of Iraq or become irrelevant. That, of course, begs the question, if the UN is irrelevant as he and the circling pentagon hawks proclaimed it last year then why is he asking it for help? Trying to convince the American public that the “re-construction” effort is going well the Administration leaked the news this weekend that the Coalition Provisional Authority will relax rules against foreign investment in Iraq. Now the word is coming from Seoul that the Administration has asked South Korea to contribute a division to the occupation army. Reportedly the Bush team hasn’t mentioned numbers but has asked for a division from Seoul while we maintain our 37,000 man garrison in the country. There is a carrot hanging out there for the Seoul regime – according unnamed Korean officials and American diplomats what the New York Times calls “potentially lucrative reconstruction contracts” are in play.

Apparently the Bush Administration has given up on appealing to the moral certainties and security fears that it claims justify its occupation of Iraq and decided to appeal to the one factor that it so clearly understands – greed. After telling us that it is dedicated to rebuilding an Iraq for the Iraqis it has started selling Iraq’s assets on the world market. “Send troops – get in on the ground floor – you too can own a piece of the peace!”.