TO COUNTER THE IDIOTS

US and Iraqi officials urged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday to send a team of specialists to Iraq to determine whether direct elections can be held there in the coming months.

Last night, delegates exiting a Security Council meeting on the subject expressed the belief that specialists eventually will be sent.

Annan told reporters that he is considering the request but has not made a decision about whether the world body would return to Iraq before power is transferred to an independent Iraqi government June 30. UN staff left the country after a bombing at the agency's compound in Baghdad in August killed 22 people.

Here's my take. I know these folks have a unique opportunity to set their nation on a different course. You know it too. Trouble is, we're not sure they get it.

The guy who speaks loudest in Iraqi neighborhoods tends to be the cleric of the day. And the cleric tends to want to establish an Islamic Theocracy a la Iran (a rational answer to the question "why?" would be anyone's guess.)

But if the USA knows anything better than anyone else in the worlds it is that Theology makes a lousy foundation for a national government.

Direct elections right now would probably result in a whole lot of folks blindly following the cleric's commands at Friday prayers.

And that would squander the opportunity to allow these folks to rise above everyone of their Arab neighbors.

But of course, if the USA says they aren't ready for these type elections, well, that's because "we want their oil".

But if the vaunted UN says a similar thing, well then, of course, it must be so.

So...my opinion is we are seeking help here so as to prevent the newly freed from reenslaving themselves.