I would be grateful to hear from the bloggers more experienced and opinionated about international affairs than I am about these questions: First, how likely is it that the U.S. will agree to turn over supervision of a subdued post-Saddam Iraq to the U.N.? President Chirac seems pretty confident that the U.S. will, & news reports from Washington over the last 48 hours suggest the same.

Second, how much should the U.S. allow Turkey to participate in supervising a post-Saddam Iraq? On one hand, I can see why we’d want to be considerate of Turkey. More than any country except perhaps Israel or India, Turkey should have the same long-range interests as the U.S. when it comes to radical Islam. On the other hand, if the country acts as petulantly as it has the last month, it should be made to pay a price for non-cooperation. E.g., if Turkey only means to give us token assistance during the military conflict, I wonder why Turkey’s Kurd problem should be our problem while we sort out Iraq’s Kurd problem.