Iraq War: Europeans offer to help

I've seen a number of articles recently about strong diplomatic hints that several European countries, including France, Germany, Russia and Spain, have been offering the US a potential diplomatic fig leaf for leaving Iraq.  The latest one I saw was on the Russian angle: Wege aus dem US-Desaster Der Spiegel Online 05/13/04.

The general thrust of these efforts would be an agreement by the US to a rapid transition of real sovereignty to an Iraqi governing entity, with the United Nations officially and practically in charge of the transition arrangement.  (See España promoverá con Alemania y Francia una resolución de la ONU sobre el traspaso de poder en Irak El Mundo 04/29/04.)

The diplomats can't put it exactly this way, but what is really being offered is a mildly face-saving formula for the US to withdraw its troops from Iraq quickly.  If a UN deal like this were to be enacted, it might provide enough short-term legitimacy to the transition in Iraq to decrease some of the attacks on US forces.  Presumably, some deal getting the US off the hook for Iraq's foreign debts would be part of the package.  (As the official occupying power, the US is responsible for Iraq's foreign debts until a sovereign Iraqi government takes over, one that can received formal international recognition.)  And there would be pledges of foreign aid of various kinds for Iraq.

But the essence of the deal would be that the UN, including the European Union and Russia, would be giving the Bush Administration some sort of political cover, internationally and domestically, to admit defeat in the counterinsurgency war, cut the US losses and go home. 

But I'm sure Bush and Rummy and Cheney are too arrogant and too unable to admit their own mistakes to take the figleaf they're being offered and make the best of a bad exit from Iraq.

It's fascinating to me how German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany's Green Party seems to have a genuine admiration for America's democratic tradition.  But at the same time, he has no trouble criticizing the practice of torture revealed in Abu Ghraib: Interview von Bundesaußenminister Fischer über die Folterdebatte, "Tagesspiegel", 13.05.2004 (Auszug); my translation..

What was attacked there [with the torture at Abu Ghuraib] are the basic values of the West.  Even though in the course of my life, I've often criticized many of the decisions of the US government, the American democracy is founded on values that define the West to this day.  And because of that, this event touches us all most deeply at the point where morality and politcs are connected, namely in Western values.  The abuse in Abu Ghuraib prison is a blow against all these values.  We we must learn from it is the uncondition duty to the law, that it has to be defedended.  The fight against terrorism must be conducted by legal means.  The law cannot and should not be defended by lawlessness.  That is of decisive significance. ...

It is an occasion for general dismay and disgust, also because at least for my generation and for all those that come after us, America was also always the symbol of Western values.  The United States is different from other nations because it originated in a founding document [the Declaration of Independence] that had as its impulse republican virtues like those the Enlightenment and the Protestant faith had founded.  The "moral highground" is not only constructive for the USA, but also for the entire West.

Asked by the interviewer if torture could ever be justified as a means of protecting against terrorism, Fischer responded:

No.  The Federal Government of Germany condemns every kind of torture.  Torture always distorts and disfigures the features also of the system that uses it.  I don't know why, after the terrible experiences of the 20th century just now have tohave a debate over torture again.  One has to state the risks in this way so that we don't violated our own basic principles.  The goal of terrorism is to get us to give up our own values.  So long as we stay true to our values, we will not be able to hinder all violent acts.  But the terrorists will never defeat us.  We can only defeat ourselves by giving up our own values.  They must be defended with the necessary toughness, but also with the necessary composure.