"TIMOR MORE DANGEROUS THAN IRAQ" Think about that: the U.N. has been in East Timor for four-and-a-half years (since August 1999). They were invited by the people of East Timor. East Timor is a small half-island of 860,000 people (almost one sixth the population of Baghdad, and one twenty-sixth the population of Iraq). How incompetent are these people? And: shouldn't this make us somewhat skeptical about the inherent benefits of internationalizing the occupying forces? Thirty-one countries had troops there in 2002, including a number of countries that have declined to participate in Iraq (Russia, Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Pakistan, among others). Maybe we're better-off in Iraq without these guys, and without a United Nations mandarin-class running the show.