After over a year of avoiding the US military for their security needs in Iraq, the UN has given up and decided that the Americans can provide their mission with protection:

The United Nations no longer objects to American soldiers to guard its staff in Iraq after the search for separate contingents from around the world failed, diplomats and U.N. sources said on Wednesday. ...

U.N. officials originally distanced themselves from American troops when traveling outside of Baghdad, believing their staff would become more of a target of the sporadic and growing violence in the country.

But without volunteers, the United Nations asked the U.S. command of the Multinational Force to supply protection, whether or not American soldiers were involved, diplomats said.

Let's hear how well Kofi Annan gets assistance from the beloved international security organiztion he runs:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in London on Tuesday he had tried to raise a brigade but "we haven't done very well."

"And it's the same governments who are asking me to send in my civilian staff who are not going to give any troops to protect them," he said.

So the same countries that have been screaming for the UN to take over the administration and rebuilding of Iraq, and who have castigated the Bush administration for insisting on remaining in charge, won't lift a finger to support and protect the UN mission which they demanded. I'm shocked, shocked! to find such hypocrisy at the United Nations, as I'm sure everyone will be.

Had we given up the command of the adminstration and rebuilding, it's now clear that we still would have had to supply all or nearly all of the security forces needed in Iraq. The only difference would be that the mission would be commanded by the same UN that allowed Saddam to fleece billions of dollars from their so-called humanitarian program instead of the US, and we'd likely be looking at another Kosovo -- where we have sat in the same status quo for over five years without a hint of resolution, or even an agreed goal for which to work.

Perhaps the complaints of Iraqis who want the UN imprimatur on their democratic processes pushed Annan to accept American troops in the UN security team:

Iraq's interim government complained Wednesday that the United Nations isn't doing enough to help prepare for January elections, saying the organization has sent fewer electoral workers than it did when tiny East Timor voted to secede from Indonesia. ...

U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations seeking to curb insurgent violence so that Iraqi voters throughout the country can choose a new transitional government in January. The elected assembly is to draft a new constitution in a major step toward democratic rule after decades of tyranny and military occupation.

But Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari complained that the UN has not sent enough election experts to help prepare for the balloting.

"It is unfortunate that the contribution and participation of UN employees in this process is not up to expectations," Zebari told reporters.

He said the number of UN workers expected to help in the election was far smaller than the 300 workers the UN sent for the 1999 independence referendum in East Timor.

"Judging by the size of the process in Iraq and its complexity, we definitely need a larger UN presence in Iraq, at least to bestow trust upon the electoral process," Zebari said.

So far, given the outcry for their participation from governments around the world, the pathetic response by the UN has only underscored the organization's uselessness. Annan's pretense that the UN could do anything effective in a dangerous area without US sponsorship and security cost almost two dozen lives last year, when the former Ba'athist spies the UN hired for its guards allowed bombers to kill the chief of the UN mission. They've been AWOL ever since, and now this poor showing for the best opportunity to spread democracy reveals Turtle Bay as a pretender, an empty shell. Anyone who states that this organization can provide for global security has to either be seriously deluded or trying to delude others.

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