Gary Kamiya’s editorial at Salon today accurately captures the subtext of the White House’s decision to go back to the UN for help in Iraq. Here we go:

The Bush administration’s humiliating announcement that it wants the U.N. to bail it out officially confers the title of “debacle” upon the grand Cheney-Rove-Wolfowitz adventure. Not even the world-class chutzpah of this administration can conceal the fact that by turning to the despised world body, it is eating a heaping plate of crow. This spectacle may give Bush-bashers from London to Jakarta a happy jolt of schadenfreude, but it does nothing to help Americans who are stuck with the ugly fallout of the Bush team’s ill-conceived, absurdly overoptimistic attempt to redraw the Middle East.

It goes on from there.