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2004-11-29 International-UN-NGOs

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Posted by Mrs. Davis 2004-11-29 9:49:01 AM|| || Front Page|| [11131 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Electing Vaclav Havel as Secretary General would go a long way to BEGIN to redeem the UN.

Posted by Ptah 2004-11-29 12:22:45 PM|| [http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org] 2004-11-29 12:22:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 The chances of Havel becoming the new UN Secretary-General are absolutely zero. The chances of Kofi Annan being replaced by someone who is much more hostile to the USA are close to 100%.

Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-11-29 12:26:53 PM|| 2004-11-29 12:26:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Well, it's a good thing the UN's nothing more than a debating club for criminals, then.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2004-11-29 12:31:46 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2004-11-29 12:31:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 100% huh? Well, that'll make it easier to withdraw all support

Posted by Frank G 2004-11-29 12:54:17 PM|| 2004-11-29 12:54:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Ouch! Glenn takes no prisonors. :-D

Disband the ~~Thugocracy Club~~ UN and form the Community of Democracies NOW.

And leave Phrance out.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2004-11-29 1:06:51 PM|| 2004-11-29 1:06:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 The breaking up, letting go, throwing in a bad hand, whatever you want to call it, is often one hell of a show. It's fascinating to watch the process - as we're all natural voyeurs to a degree. I think of articles like this as a sort of intellectual onanism - of no consequence in the real world. The only one getting any real jollies out of such focused stroking is the agenda-pusher.

The UN is DEAD. It has been DEAD for quite awhile, now. We all know it. How many times have we pleaded with, cajoled, entreated and, eventually, kicked the corpse - hoping for a response? Your pet thingy comes along - "Call the UN!" and then... nothing. And true time after time, pet thingy after pet thingy, cause after cause, righteous indignation after... you get the idea. Same result. DEAD. Everyone knows it - no matter how hard they close their eyes or how many times they click their heels together...

It doesn't really matter what the charter says or what the pundits and politicians and professors tell us - once it took root it evolved into something else, a symbol that by its very nature had responsibilities. These took the form of expectations - a simple fact of our quirky human nature, no matter whether it's fair or not... By any rational measure, even by its own and the parasitic constituencies, it has failed those expectations, those responsibilities, so many times that now only the exceptions are trotted out to the stand of microphones and popping flashbulbs, a grand gesture that can only be completed now with a wink and a nod for public display, fading adulation, and the requisite pleas and softball MSM reportage for its continuation - the pretense that it's relevant and viable. How pathetic. A faded actress. A DEAD actress. And, truth be told, she was never really that good. The memories outshine the realities - another common human trait laden with emotional goodwill for the departed. They become "dear" - after the fact.

When did it die? Pfeh - an irrelevance... a subject for the pundits and professors and reporters who'll miss those fabulous open bars - in other words, the coterie of professional onanists. Many books will be written and many interviews given - the parasite industries must be fed - but the question is of no consequence. The real question, since we're such industrious little bees and full of hope, heh, is what comes next... but I'm getting ahead of myself...

And the Coroner sez... Compare the cost to benefit ratio. Not just in dollars or time, certainly significant investments, but in the cynicism that comes from repeated failure and broken promises. Eventually, the kid knows the promise is empty - and begins to laugh in the face of the constituents who insist the Emperor's New Clothes are, what else, simply fabulous! Nah, not this time. So, regards that ratio, how close to zero can it get before someone finally whispers the unspeakable?

Once spoken, the relief is palpable â for the people who kept faith for so very long, in spite of being stuck with the tab and the unfulfilled expectations, realistic or not. Now, until the last diplomat skips out on a parking ticket â or rape charge, the weight of pretense must be borne by the organization, its parasitic constituency, and the dwindling pool of toolfools, such as the MSM â all of whom will, indeed, really miss the open bars and gourmet munchies and expense account lunches in Upper Manhattan. This is sad, certainly, for it has become a significant industry unto itself, but never fear â they are all professional leeches and there will be other hosts, fat and ripened, to which they will attach themselves.

The cat is out of the bag. This is a learning process, not an end nor the hand we must always play. Time to fold. We invented the League of Nations. It failed and we learned - a little. We invented the UN. It failed and we have learned a little more. We can try again or go the bi-lateral treaty route - whatever serves our interests best - for that is the only value in such an organization, period. Full stop.

Is that $0.02 worth?

Posted by .com 2004-11-29 1:48:24 PM|| 2004-11-29 1:48:24 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 I can only imagine one scenario in which even the most cowardly, parasitical, bigoted and corrupt members of the UN would get off their rears to act:

If the UN decided to take action against the US (a fruition of the hating America platform) with sanctions, resolutions, arrest warrants, etc.

In all this post-war talk in America and Europe about why the Iraq War was right or was wrong, never is a word peeped about how the functionality and the integrity of the UN was being destroyed by Saddam's defiant provocations. You would think that each country in the UN would want to reinforce the solemnity of such an organization and want its decision to be taken seriously. In fact, hasn't that been the gripe of one of our greatest detrators-France? ("We need to learn to listen to each other.") How many GENUINE human rights abuses could be stopped, how many more innocents in the world would be alive today if members had performed their jobs with commitment and courage? The UN, by avoiding what happened under Saddam, defined itself as the defender of graft, torture and murder.

Thank God President Bush shoved the mirror in the world's faces; but after he did, did anyone at the UN see anything out of kilter? No-everything looked just fine to France, Germany, Russia, Chile...The rot is within.

Posted by Jules 187 2004-11-29 2:30:56 PM|| 2004-11-29 2:30:56 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 The UN, by avoiding what happened under Saddam, defined itself as the defender of graft, torture and murder.

Given the makeup of the UN, that was about as surprising as finding an easy woman in a brothel.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2004-11-29 4:15:00 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2004-11-29 4:15:00 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 :) True.

So why is the US in a curtsy-to-the-UN mode right now? Seems WE are suffering from cognitive dissonance, as well as our "allies".

Posted by Jules 187 2004-11-29 4:19:59 PM|| 2004-11-29 4:19:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 I'm still big. It's the crises that got smaller.

K Annan.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2004-11-29 4:26:30 PM|| 2004-11-29 4:26:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 So why is the US in a curtsy-to-the-UN mode right now?

Bush and Allawi want Kofi's blessing on the Jan 30 elections. After that, the gloves will start to come off.

Posted by lex 2004-11-29 4:26:37 PM|| 2004-11-29 4:26:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Exactly. Expediency.

Bush saw the problem of a declawed and corrupt UN before the Iraq War. That was why he tried to go it alone-he knew that half would decline because of lack of principles and half would decline, preferring instead the prized goal of sticking it to the US.

Our international partners, instead of considering whether he might have a point about what the UN was becoming, or whether the lives in all those Iraqi mass graves had worth, plunged ahead with accusations of "hegemonic, oil-grabbing, imperialistic America", increasing the negative publicity on the US so that anti-Americanism worldwide would skyrocket, their own countries would rise on the PR stage, their sense of justice would be slaked by American blood, and the chances for Iraqi success would be smothered-restoring the grandeur and omnipotence of the UN in international crises.

The UN has been using this new and promising anti-US PR tactic quite effectively, to the detriment of decapitated Americans and executed Iraqis ever since. But Kofi Annan, France, et al can not escape the history in their own actions, and have been suffering PR nightmares since, precisely because ideals/principles/whatever you want to call them DO matter. Election results in the US, while not delineated precisely, scream this. The appeal of "I do what I say" appeals for both and idealistic and practical reasons. This administration is in a tough position. I understand the timing point in your remark, but we have to remember the other, much more dangerous components in our "relationship with the UN" are still there-many of our UN "allies" want us to fail. We should keep that in mind with the calculus of the election calendar, UN/Allawi/the outcome of Iraq.

Know thine enemy.

Posted by Jules 187 2004-11-29 5:10:44 PM|| 2004-11-29 5:10:44 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Hello.....

"23:53 Kofi Annan says `disappointed` his son did not tell him full story of his ties to firm involved in UN oil-for-food program "

From Haaretz Flash

Posted by Heysenbergwashere 2004-11-29 5:30:06 PM|| 2004-11-29 5:30:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 It's conceivable. Kids sometimes lie to their parents.

OTOH, he can't be "disappointed" about tens of thousands of dead Sudanese, increasing every day, because he KNOWS it is happening and has provided no leadership to stop it.

Posted by Jules 187 2004-11-29 5:35:00 PM|| 2004-11-29 5:35:00 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 Werner, Thanks for the tip. I just posted an article from The Age.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2004-11-29 5:40:37 PM|| 2004-11-29 5:40:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 It's dead .com? So what? Decent lunches and junkets are forever.

Posted by Shipman 2004-11-29 7:07:20 PM|| 2004-11-29 7:07:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 The chances of Kofi Annan being replaced by someone who is much more hostile to the USA are close to 100%.

Such an appointment (and the actions by the UN that followed) would SEAL THE UN'S DOOM. There are limits to what middle America will stand for--and most polls show their opinion of the UN is declining rapidly. All it would take would be some badly worded and poorly thought out anti-US resolution to put an abrupt end to the funding the US provides.

Posted by Crusader 2004-11-29 7:22:55 PM|| 2004-11-29 7:22:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 ..I've said it before and I'll say it again - the next UNSG will almost certainly be a Muslim from one of the 'struggle' nations. An Iranian would be the best bet, followed by a Palestinian.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2004-11-29 11:41:16 PM|| 2004-11-29 11:41:16 PM|| Front Page Top

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