If this isn’t the most arrogant thing I’ve seen in some time from a UN official:
“It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”
The complaint? The US and several other real nations are grouping together to provide aid to tsunami victims without going through the UN first. You know, greasing the proper palms and all that.
I did watch Kofi Annon’s press conference yesterday concerning the relief effort in Asia. The man clearly does not have a plan, nor do I think he has the ability to devise a plan to address the problems those unfortunate people now face.
As usual, help will flow generously from the USA, the rest of the world will simply give lip service mostly, then heap critizism on the US for not doing enough. We’ve seen this before in virtually every natural disaster throughout the third world. Why do we bother?
Comment by John — December 31, 2004 @ 6:48 am
We bother because we care. More than any other nation. Bush is playing this perfectly, teaming with two others who lead the world in UN funding–Japan and Australia–to put the money where it does good rather than allowing the UN to take a cut. Why does the UN need a percentage when their staff is already funded through dues–most of which are paid by these three nations?
Comment by Mike — December 31, 2004 @ 8:39 am
I loved the comment by MICHAEL A. FUMENTO of the New York Post as he describes the efforts of the UN, he says: “the organization jostling to take the lead in providing relief, the United Nations, has in previous crises proved itself to be a snail with arthritic knees. Look at what it accomplished — or, more to the point, failed to accomplish — in Rwanda and Darfur. The more who die, the faster the world agency twiddles its thumbs.”
That just about sums up what the UN will do this time around very nicely.
Comment by John — December 31, 2004 @ 8:58 am
Amazing, isn’t it? I do believe Miss Short would back Hitler and Nazi Germany against the United States and George W. Bush. But then, that’s the way of it when one’s convictions are relational and oppositional rather than absolute and independent of the opinions of others.
Comment by Francis W. Porretto — December 31, 2004 @ 2:29 pm