Juan Cole’s invaluable blog is of special interest today. Cole calls for the United Nations to set a clear timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq. He says it is an important opportunity for the peace movement, as the third anniversary of the war approaches.

In certain ways, Cole’s plan accords with what The Nation has laid out in our many editorials, in these last few years, calling for US withdrawal and an end to the occupation. We’ve always believed that the Iraq situation should be internationalized, and that the United Nations could play a key role in helping Iraq, as Cole writes, "through the coming years of instability and help shepherd it to independence from the US and UK." In addition, as he notes, this "would help strengthen international, multilateral organizations generally and contribute to an institutionalization of international law."

As Cole puts it, and we would agree: "Bush invaded Iraq, in part, in order to destroy the United Nations. Forcing him to bring it into Iraq would be a blow against American unilateralism and rightwing American aggression for decades to come."