"THE RAGING DEBATE over what role the United Nations should play in postwar Iraq has been pitched at the level of high principle, where differing views often end up being irreconcilable. This helps neither Iraq nor the United Nations. 'Our blood and treasure, our decisions,' was the mantra emanating from Pentagon and White House hardliners. At the other end of the spectrum, French President Jacques Chirac divined that 'It is up to the United Nations — and it alone — to take on the political, economic, humanitarian, and administrative reconstruction of Iraq...."