The score-settling has begun.Oh, I don't mean between the Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Turkmen. The war is going well and these problems have not surfaced―yet. No, it is the great nations of the Western world that are taking potshots at one another, this time over the postwar arrangements in Iraq. The stakes are high. This is not simply a debate over how to rebuild Iraq but rather how to rebuild international trust between Washington and some of its key allies. This trust has been eroded not simply by Washington's behavior, heavy-handed though it has been. The other major powers have also been unilateral and incoherent. Consider France, which, in its discomfort with American power, has shattered the EU's foreign-policy process, weakened NATO, hurt its relations with its Central European allies and permanently set back its relations with Britain―all to avoid endorsing military action against Saddam Hussein. (Another prize for bad diplomacy surely goes to Turkey, which has forgone massive economic aid and good will.)
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