I'm a little afraid that, for whatever reason, the President seems to want to re-involve the UN in this whole mess afterwards. The Matthew Kaminski has a fine WSJ op-ed explaining why it doesn't even do relief work well. I could see a Palestinization of the Iraqis - eternal dependence on a self-important and self-righteous bureaucracy, leading to bitterness and radicaliztion of the population. And Claudia Rossett had another WSJ op-ed a few months ago exposing the Food-for-Oil program as a UN jobs program. Fortunately, once again, our opponents may prove to be their own worst enemies, and the French seem determined to torpedo this proposition.

As for Jed Babbin's fears, he may have properly pinpointed Saddam's Jenin strategy, both the State Department and Britain have shown a clear willingness to pursue ends with means they would deny to Israel. We appear to be willing to sustain whatever short-term diplomatic damage we need to, and we're not dependent on another country for economic or military survival.