Senators want U.N. back in Iraq

Published 9:00 pm Friday, November 28, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A day after President Bush’s surprise visit, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Jack Reed arrived Friday in less dramatic style, saying it isn’t too late to bring the United Nations back to Iraq.

A U.S. soldier, meanwhile, was killed when guerrillas shelled a military base in the northern city of Mosul.

Two other U.S. soldiers were injured when their tank struck a land mine near the Syrian border, the military said.

The military also said it had captured one of Saddam Hussein’s former bodyguards, identified as Brig. Gen. Khalid Arak Hatimy. The statement said Hatimy had been inciting the uprising west of Baghdad and providing money and weapons to guerrillas.

U.S. soldiers in Ramadi shot a 7-year-old Iraqi child in the foot after the child pointed an AK-47 automatic rifle at them, the U.S. military said.

Clinton and Reed said the expense and political burden in administering Iraq would be made easier with the U.N.’s stamp of legitimacy and help in transferring power to Iraqis.

“I’m a big believer that we ought to internationalize this, but it will take a big change in our administration’s thinking,” the former first lady said. “I don’t see that it’s forthcoming.”

Both senators cautioned that the Bush administration’s new plans to speed up the transfer of power to an Iraqi government are risky, given the country’s political and social upheaval.

Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said a “critical factor” for coalition authorities was securing the blessing of Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslim community, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who has criticized the plan.

Al-Sistani, whose opinion is crucial to the success of any political plan in Iraq, has said in recent days he wants an elected Iraqi provisional government instead of one chosen through regional caucuses.

“We’re caught in a dilemma, possibly of our own making,” Reed said. “A quick, hasty election might bring to power a person who doesn’t share the values we’re trying to encourage. But the more we wait, the more it looks like an occupation.”

Clinton said the main purpose of her trip was to show support for U.S. troops.

“I wanted to come to Iraq to let the troops know about the great job they’re doing,” the New York Democrat said.

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