USUALLY, EVEN in the world's most dangerous trouble spots, combatants have in the past taken care not to aim at members of the United Nations peace-keeping forces or its civilian workers, although from time to time a few have been caught in crossfire.
The suicide bombing on Tuesday of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, which claimed the lives of at least 20 people and the bomber, and left three missing and more than 100 wounded, served chilling notice that the rules of engagement have changed -
for the worse.
The men and women in the building that was targeted were civilians who were there to give such humanitarian aid to the Iraqis as medical care, to organise the distribution of food, and to facilitate reconstruction.
US President George Bush said that the terrorists who struck showed their contempt for the innocent, their fear of progress and their hatred of peace. He branded them as "the enemies of the Iraqi people... the enemies of every nation that seeks to help the Iraqi people."
Reports from Baghdad are that a flatbed truck with some 1,500 lb. of explosives, including a vintage 500-lb. Soviet-made bomb, was used to bring down the converted hotel which housed several United Nations agencies.
Hitherto, the attacks in Iraq were directed against the U.S. military, with the strategy seeming to broaden in recent weeks to include such targets as water supplies and oil pipelines with even an embassy being attacked.
According to President Bush "by attempting to spread chaos and fear, terrorists are testing our will..." The perpetrators seem in fact to be bent on spreading chaos and fear and demonstrating that the United States is incapable of protecting United Nations and other international aid agency workers and of attaining its goal of bringing peace to Iraq.
The United Nations must now make the difficult decision of either leaving Iraq, which would be seen as giving in to the terrorists, and thus rendering the Iraqis not only helpless but hopeless, or staying and putting its staff at risk.
For the Americans, their challenge is to provide the level of security that guarantees both the Iraqis the peace they crave and the United Nations staff, the atmosphere in which to offer the nation the humanitarian and other assistance it so desperately needs if it is to return to any semblance of normal life.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
