If the IMF and World Bank don't get back into Iraq pretty damn fast, Bush is screwed. They are his and his cronies' credit card and bank rollers in Iraq. If Bush can't get the security situation under control by October or November of this year, his ability to win re-election in the US will be badly impaired, regardless of whatever "economic boost" the administration cooks up with Congressional Republicans to ease them into the primary season beginning in January. The Republicans don't give a damn about humanitarian assistance in Iraq. They want money to bankroll the infrastructure that will benefit the US/UK coalition/empire. The money is already there in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, and other small oil oligarchy nations. The Republicans need money for Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan and the Caspian region. Look at a map, find the commodity reserves on it (not just oil and natural gas, but the other raw materials used to fuel the global economy too, including exploitable work forces), and it should be pretty apparent who the Bush administration needs to succeed, and who they don't.

They don't need the UN. They don't need humanitarian assistance. They need the money men at IMF and the World Bank, and the engineers at Bechtel and Halliburton.

When you hear US pundits talk nowadays about there being "a limited amount of time" to get Iraq's security situation under control, that is what they are talking about. The timing issue for the US elections. If Bush doesn't win re-election, the imerial reach strategy will change, and the vested interests of the global oligarchies will be on the defensive, rather than the offensive side.

Since Bush still doesn't need the UN, the current strategy in the wake of the UN HQ bombing will be to get a rubber stamp resolution from the UN. The Bush administration is talking about bringing in NATO forces, not UN peacekeepers. There is a very big distinction to be made between the two politically, as far as the Bushite right wing and global oligarchy sees it ideologically. NATO good, UN bad in their world. So expect the push this fall to be Powell trying to get a UN resolution that keeps UN troops out, but gives cover to NATO to go in, under US command.