Outside St Paul's Basilica many mourners felt the same way In an interview published on Monday Dominique de Villepin, the Foreign Minister, called for the handover of power to "go faster" and suggested a transfer of sovereignty by the end of the year. But the new attempt to legitimise the administration in Iraq was enough for most EU member states, and Mr Powell was even given polite applause by the foreign ministers.France remains the sole vocal critic. Sergio Vieira De Mello, the UN representative, died in a bomb blast earlier this year.With US casualties mounting, the country has embarked on a belated effort to embrace the international community, as part of its first attempts to share the burden of dealing with the growing morass in Iraq.France and Germany, which led the opposition to the war, have so far refused to offer troops or pledge large cash donations for reconstruction. France found itself remaining the lone critic of the American timetable for returning political power to the Iraqis as the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, promised yesterday that security would be "under control" by his deadline for the handover in June.
In a visit to European Union foreign ministers, Mr Powell highlighted the importance of involving international organisations in the administration of country, and urged Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, to send a new special envoy to Baghdad. "In my heart, I want the Italians to come home," said Cristina Malatesta, a retired teacher, "but I know they must stay. The war was not just, and the United Nations should have been brought in right afterwards But the Italians must stay, under the command of the UN.". On Monday, Marco Calamai, an Italian special counsellor with the Iraq Coalition Provision Authority, announced his resignation, saying: "The provisional authority simply doesn't work ... There needs to be a radical change with respect to the policies taken so far by the US."He said the atrocity in Nasiriya bombing was "the consequence of a mistaken policy and an under-evaluation of the complexity of the social structure of Iraq." Only an interim authority led by the United Nations, he maintained, could turn things round.Outside St Paul's Basilica, many mourners felt the same way.
Eventually, compromise came and a match with Argentina was duly played before a huge gathering at headquarters. During the course of the controversy, coach Woodward, unlike his football counterpart, Eriksson, not only got off the fence, he did so with the debating equivalent of a meat cleaver He harangued his players on their duty to their country. Their tackling of the issue in 2000, which was quite fundamental to the players' rights as professionals, provides another window of comparison between a team now poised to win a World Cup and the one which slipped out of last year's football version in the Far East all but waving a white flag.The rugby team insisted that their employers, the Rugby Football Union, were obliged to review the scale of rewards for those players who filled Twickenham for a mighty profit.It was not a case of turning their back on the flag, but negotiating something that didn't insult their role as professional sportsmen. What is gut-wrenching, though, is that the English footballers, now with the support of their coach, continue to argue the case for Rio Ferdinand, who far from being innocent until proven guilty is dead to rights on the serious charge that he refused to take a drugs test.The relevance of this sad affair - already rendered pitiful by the threat of strike action by the England players before a crucial competitive match with Turkey in Istanbul last month - to events here in Sydney, is that the rugby team and their coach have also been through talk of a strike. In the meantime we can only give English rugby's Caesar, coach Clive Woodward, and his men their considerable due.They have conducted themselves superbly here, taking a stream of biting criticism if not with forbearance, at least with an implicit acceptance that it is part of the territory you tread when you are bold enough to promise to beat the world. A powerful wind whipped in from the sea here in Sydney yesterday, blowing away - at least it was pretty to think - the doubts that had been building around England's challenge for the World Cup before Sunday night's destruction of the glamorous French. This, however, is something to be resolved in the emotional maelstrom of the final at the Telstra Stadium on Saturday night, when Martin Johnson leads his men into the great maw of Australian sporting ambition. |
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