the United States, Iraq, and the post-oil Middle East: Part 2
I began the first part of this essay invoking the memory of Sergio de Mello, the United Nations diplomat killed on August 19th, 2003 in Iraq. His death symbolized in many ways the end of internationalist hopes for constructing a peaceful and equitable resolution to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. To start this essay, which due to its length will have to be Part 2 of a now three part series, let's revisit August of 2003. August 14th, 2003 saw this article by Steven R. Weisman and Felicity Barringer in the New York Times document the diplomatic conditions that made de Mello's death so disheartening: "The Bush administration has abandoned the idea of giving the United Nations more of a role in the occupation of Iraq as sought by France, India and other countries as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping there, administration officials said today. Instead, the officials said, the United States would widen its effort to enlist other countries to assist the occup