Change of course is needed toward self-rule in Iraq

Change of course is neededtoward self-rule in Iraq
It's been yet another troubling week for U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, one that casts additional doubt on the wisdom of America's plan to transfer power to Iraqi authorities next month.
To wit:
U Abdel-Zahraa Othman, the leader of the Iraqi Governing Council, was assassinated in a suicide car bombing Monday. A group linked to Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the killing.
U A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party Thursday in western Iraq, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military countered that the attack targeted a suspected safe house for insurgent fighters from Syria.
U The U.S. military accused fighters loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr of firing on American forces from one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines -- the Imam Hussein shrine in the center of Karbala.
Collectively these events attest to the continued instability in Iraq, the likelihood for intensified anti-American sentiments and the lingering potency of the armed insurgency against coalition forces.
Nonetheless, the United States, with its 135,000 troops making up about 90 percent of the occupation force, presses on with plans to end the occupation and hand over sovereignty to Iraqis by June 30. The president said Thursday that he anticipates the selection in the next two weeks of the president and top ministers of the Iraqi government.
More U.S. troops
Ironically, at the same time, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq is contemplating beefing up the American military presence there once the formal occupation ends.
Gen. John Abizaid, said this week he may need more than the 135,000 troops once political control is handed back to the Iraqis because the insurgency is likely to grow even more violent then.
These events provide fresh evidence for rethinking the way the United States and its small cadre of allies are attempting to democratize Iraq. They point to the need for the army that will remain in Iraq after June 30 to be a true multinational force under the supervision of the United Nations.
As we've stated in the past, the hand-over of power to a provisional Iraqi government in June will be largely symbolic. The envisioned transformation from a liberated but discombobulated nation to self-sufficient democracy will not happen miraculously overnight June 29. Nor will it happen without the continued presence and intervention of outside parties.
Those outside parties, however, should not be exclusively the United States and a few select allied nations. It should be a multinational U.N. force that includes personnel from Arab and Muslim nations. Such a force might be seen as less of a threat and therefore less of a target by insurgents.
The U.S. role
The United States needs to be an integral part of that force because it cannot afford to abandon Iraq, at least not in the immediate future. Our commitment there has already cost some 800 lives and billions upon billions of dollars. But it has also toppled a despot and laid the foundation for constructive change.
But for complete and lasting change to self-rule to take root in Iraq, a viable coalition of dozens of nations under the purview of the United Nations remains the most promising option.