Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

It is unpleasant to think about, but the world is a very corrupt place. In international politics and diplomacy, corruption is the primary currency. In the last six months, this has been highlighted like never before. It has always been there, it has simply become far more visible. A lot of the credit goes to the explosion of information accessibility through the blogosphere and other internet connections.

Just to mention the most visible of recent examples of this corruption we have the Oil-for-Food scandal, French oil contracts in Sudan, and the UN complicity, along with Russia’s, in the 380 tons (or was it 3 tons) of explosives which may be missing from Iraq.

These are examples which have managed to bubble to the surface. They are examples of the rule rather than exeption. Saddam Hussein spent a great deal of his country’s capital buying off various politicians and diplomats. In the larger world outside the US, the political class view such activity as standard business practice. Which is one reason they view Bush with suspicion and disdain. He isn’t playing the game according to their well-established rules–rules that would simply enrich him and others in his Administration if he would just play nice.

Our State Department understands the rules. They prefer to play the game. A healthy retirement income awaits any diplomat who steers the US government in the right direction. Even someone of strong ethics like Colin Powell has difficulty in herding those cats. They know that the Administration will change every eight years at most, and they can simply return to International Rules.

The focus today remains on Saddam, but there are plenty of others out there concerned that they might be next. Baksheesh has already been rendered. Continued payment requires that the UN, and others who know how the game is played, put hurdles in the way of any US action. There are plenty of “leaders” around the world who know their power lies not in a mandate of their citizens, but in the good graces of Kofi Annan.

Any time someone mentions diplomacy, you must consider this.

Robert Mugabe and Kim Jung Il do.

…and the UN out of the US. I don’t see how we can draw any other conclusion. The UN is staffed by the hoi polloi of the international set, and live the good life in New York at the expense, primarily, of US taxpayers. They seem to view us as serfs, as they do their own countrymen.

During the Cold War, the UN actually served a function–to lend credibility to disputes between the First World and Second World. It became the forum for the Third World to exert some influence, although that influence was limited by the authority of the main players: France, China, Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States, the five surviving governments of WW II. France often sided with their socialist brethren.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the UN became more a sounding board for dictators hoping to fill the void. And it became a vehicle for “restraining” the last remaining super-power. The drive for a European Government is being championed by the same people who believe a World Government is the best of all possible outcomes. Any sign of strength in the US is viewed as a threat.

Big Trunk points out what I view as the final straw:

…collusion between foreign entities, the MSM, and the Democratic Party to change U.S. policy through disinformation.

The foreign entities, including Britain’s Guardian, are mostly in the UN. Kofi Annan and many others, including his son, apparently made millions off the Oil-for-Food Program which Dubya so rudely ended. Kofi himself has made his contempt for our President known. Others have been more reluctant to go on the record, perhaps out of fear they’ll end up back home rather than in the Big Apple. But they speak in whispers, and those sounds come through clearly, if only anonymously.

The latest issue, to which Big Trunk alludes, is detailed in two articles he cites. In the first, Clifford May makes it clear that people in the UN want Bush gone, and will do what they can to help CBS, The New York Times, and the Kerry campaign unseat him. And they are using what may be imaginary stockpiles of explosives to try.

In a related article, Dr. Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation, points the finger at the nuclear watchdogs at the UN:

There is certainly no shortage of tensions between the IAEA and the Bush Administration. Since U.N. inspectors led by Hans Blix were withdrawn from Iraq ahead of the U.S.-British liberation of the country in 2002, relations between the IAEA and the U.S. government have been stormy. The United States has consistently opposed the return of U.N. inspectors to Iraq, despite repeated requests, and has been critical of the IAEA

Today, Ralph Peters addresses the concerns of a friend of his who is now in Iraq. No, he doesn’t fear for his safety. He fears for the conclusion of our efforts in Iraq.

He badly wanted me to write another column before Election Day stressing that our troops are winning in Iraq.

This fight in Iraq is but a single battle in the overall war against fundamentalists who use terror as their primary weapon. The reason for using terror is to get their enemy to give up–quit fighting. They will then be free to do as they wish. And what they wish is to take over every government in the world and turn them all into Islamic cultures under sharia law. Any government they can cow is one they no longer have to deal with except in times of their choosing.

Peters is one of the best in analyzing strategic situations, and he sums this one up well:

Al Qaeda and its affiliates are rapidly using up the human capital they’ve accumulated over decades. The casualties in Iraq are overwhelmingly on the terrorist side. Extremist leaders have paid a particularly heavy price. But they won’t stop fighting because they can’t. The terrorists have to win in Iraq. They have to defeat America.

The astonishing thing is that so many of our fellow Americans don’t get it. The terrorists aren’t committing their shrinking reserves because the outcome’s a trivial matter. They recognize the magnitude of what we’re helping the Iraqi people achieve.

This is the big one. The fate of a civilization hangs in the balance. And all we hear from one presidential contender is that it’s the “wrong war, at the wrong time.”

We hear from the Kerry campaign that the military is stretched to its limit. In the next breath they will tell you Kerry will increase troop strength in Iraq.

The enemy have put all their eggs in the Iraqi basket. Dubya wants to destroy those eggs. Kerry has been clear he doesn’t.