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By insisting that the United Nations take the lead in postwar Iraq, the three main opponents of the military campaign there risk further damage to their relationship with the United States.

But there is an equal risk for the United States too: Thump too hard on Russia, Germany and France, and their support in other areas of U.S. foreign policy say, North Korea or Iran might disappear.

"They don't have to engage in open defiance of the United States to hurt our interests," said Cato Institute scholar Ted Galen Carpenter. "All they have to do is simply be less responsive."

Alienate France or Germany, which are leading European Union nations, and "trade wars and other things could become real possibilities," Carpenter said. And Russia, as a main source of nuclear technology for Iran, would not be inclined to change its policies if it is getting beaten up by Washington.

So far, U.S. officials have taken in stride the anti-U.S. comments about the Iraq war coming out of a Russian-German-French summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. But the Bush administration has not been able to resist rubbing it in a little over the three nations' anti-war posture.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz touched off a furor this week when he suggested that the three countries do their part by forgiving Iraq's debt; Russian lawmakers, eyeing the $7 billion in Soviet-era debt owed to Moscow, rejected that indignantly and said such negotiations should be left to the Iraqis, not the Americans.

One Russian leader accused the United States of bringing up debt relief in order to be "boorish" and vengeful toward the countries that did not back war in Iraq.

But on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would consider writing off Baghdad's debts.

The Bush administration kept up the pressure.

"It's an issue that arises in all our discussions," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday. "It's been a long time since Iraq has been paying any of its debt. And there are international mechanisms for dealing with those situations that we would expect, at the appropriate time, the international community might use."

More fractious than the debt issue was the anticipated insistence from Russia, Germany and France that the United Nations take the lead in postwar reconstruction in Iraq.

Celeste Wallender, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who traveled to St. Petersburg to observe the summit, said such an approach would be foolhardy. However, she said, the United States also should not reject outright their arguments.

"The U.S. needs to work with the U.N. The U.N. brings special strengths to international situations," Wallender said. "But I think France, Germany and Russia pressing for the U.N. to take over in Iraq immediately are being quite irresponsible. What's going on in Iraq today is not meant for peacekeeping. ... The United States should focus on working with the three countries, and say, 'We want the international community to do it in the right way, at the right time.'"

Nile Gardiner, visiting fellow in Anglo-American security policy at the Heritage Foundation, said the United States should seize the chance to put together a vision of a "new Europe" that includes eastern and central European nations who supported President Bush's position on Iraq. But it should not allow momentum in Iraq to spiral into a round of endless U.N. negotiations and stalling tactics, he said.

"France would only agree to a U.N. mandate if France, Germany and Russia are given a key role in administering Iraq. That is simply unacceptable to Washington," Gardiner said. "So I believe the United Nations is being used merely as a Trojan horse to serve the interest of European nations that have shamefully appeased a brutal totalitarian regime."

photo credit and caption:

Blood runs on the sidewalk as an Iraqi man yells for other civilians to back away shortly after a bus was shot on a bridge by a tank crew from the U.S. Army 4th Battalion 64 Armor Regiment in Baghdad Friday, April 11, 2003. Tank commander Charles Wooten said that his tank fired on the vehicle after it refused to stop when warning shots were fired. The bus driver was killed and the Army said it found Iraqi military uniforms inside the vehicle.(AP Photo/John Moore)

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