The words of George Bush at the United Nations this week left the world puzzled and angry. Some friends, whose sons are also in Iraq, wrote to me wondering if George Bush was taking drugs; others wondered what his remarks about the international sex slave trade had to do with Iraq. We were outraged, those of us personally affected by this human crisis - Iraqis and Americans alike - that this man would continue to repeat the same words that have made the United States government the subject of ridicule and hatred both at home and abroad. How dare he continue to speak of the United States spreading democracy, when it is quite clear that what is being spread is chaos?

“Events during the past two years have set before us the clearest of divides: between those who seek order and those who spread chaos,” Bush told the UN delegates, who perhaps wondered if their translators were correct. “Between those who work for peaceful change and those who adopt the methods of gangsters; between those who honor the rights of man and those who deliberately take the lives of men and women and children without mercy or shame?” Is Bush so clueless that he did not realize that he was describing his own actions?

Two days later, an article by Donald Rumsfeld appeared in the Washington Post, “Beyond ‘Nation-Building.’” Nation building?, I thought, these people are too incompetent to run our own nation, let alone build others even if they had that right. “Today Gen. Tom Frank’s innovative and flexible war plan, which so many dismissed as a failure, is being studied by military historians and taught in war colleges,” he wrote. “Today in Iraq, an innovative plan is also being implemented in our effort to win the peace. And it should come as no surprise that we are again hearing suggestions as to why the postwar effort is on the brink of failure.” Is Rumsfeld suggesting that what happened in Iraq should be studied and repeated around the world? It is common knowledge that the war plan succeeded only because, contrary to the lies used to terrify the world with the awesome military might of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi military was so lacking in resources, or the fabled WMDs, that they could not effectively defend their own country, let alone invade others. There is wide agreement that there was and is no plan for post-war Iraq, and that the actions of the United States in even maintaining order or restoring basic services are a complete failure.

Many families of soldiers hope that the United Nations will commit troops that would allow their sons and daughters to leave. Many young wives of soldiers simply want their husbands home. Without much understanding of international affairs, they place their hopes that other troops will magically appear to replace their loved ones. I do not know if a UN peacekeeping force is the first step to a solution in Iraq. I understand the criticism of the United Nations for both upholding the devastating sanctions placed on Iraq and not acting strongly against the US invasion. My main concern is that the Iraqi people control their own destiny - but in the midst of chaos, how is one to tell what the Iraqi people want? I want my son home, but I support those members of the United Nations who continue to refuse assistance to the Bush Administration when they have shown no change of heart.

With the same breath, the Bush Administration has the nerve to ask Congress for $87 billion to continue the occupation of Iraq. I believe that the United States must bear financial responsibility for rebuilding Iraq, but this money should not be put in the hands of those who have shown themselves to be completely incompetent and who do not have the goal of assisting the Iraqi people or ending the US occupation. When people behave in an incompetent, perhaps even criminal manner, you do not continue to give them funding. Congress needs to flatly deny this request.

Good results will never come from evil actions. There is no magical solution that will quickly restore safety to the Iraqi people. The thousands of US soldiers who are occupying Iraq cannot just close their eyes and wish themselves home. But instead of taking steps to end the occupation and restore power to Iraqis, Bush and Rumsfeld are determined instead to present failure as success and to ask for assistance in continuing to cause overwhelming misery and death. They want to continue to keep our young soldiers - like my son who sits at the Abu Ghraib prison wondering when the next attack will come - in an atmosphere where they are losing all ability to distinguish right from wrong.

I am not a policy expert. I would never even attempt to build a nation. But I do know that in order to arrive at a solution, you must have clear goals; and the goals of US policy in Iraq must change. This is the first step in what will surely be a long and terrible road to create order from the chaos caused by the Bush administration, a road as long and terrible as the road from the Baghdad Airport to Ramadi, where my son now sits, along with thousands of other soldiers and Iraqis who live in terror for their lives. The US troops are not there to help restore order or rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq; right now, their only concern is defending themselves against chaos, adding to the destruction and chaos in the process. Our goals should be clear: Not one more Iraqi child killed by a frightened and angry US soldier. Not one more US soldier killed or maimed by Iraqis who want them to leave. End the US occupation of Iraq and restore sovereignty to the Iraqi people. No more support for the masters of chaos.