On August 21, the US was preparing a new UN Security Council Resolution that aims to persuade more countries to send peacekeeping troops in Iraq. US Secretary of States, Colin Powell, boasted that the already 30 countries participating have sent about 22,000 soldiers. He also said that the US would not transfer responsibility for security to a multinational force in Iraq. In other words, the US wants other countries to send soldiers to be killed in Iraq instead of Americans, but without any say in the operations, as they would be under US command only. The main countries will still certainly say, "NO, sort the mess you made".

On August 12, 2004, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to extend the UN mission in Iraq for a year. The resolution says that the UN should play a key role in assisting Iraq "in the formation of institutions for representative government". But the secretary general highlighted the risk of attacks on UN personnel, indicating that UN staff would be limited and as a result the UN's impact will be limited too. The UN is sending a small team led by the new envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi of Pakistan. The UN will have to rely on the US-led multinational force for security.