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A colleague came back from a meeting held by the local UN representative yesterday and reported that the UN rep had said that while it was a good thing that the Australians and Americans were running the air ops into tsunami-wrecked Aceh, for cultural and political reasons, those Australians and Americans really "should go blue." In other words, they should switch into UN uniforms and give up their national ones.
Now you all know that The Diplomad is not a cynical or suspicious being, but there is something funny going on here . . . what could it be? Could it be a genuine concern for local "cultural and political sensitivities" that would be offended by the presence of Aussies and Yanks in their own military uniforms saving thousands of lives? Maybe . . . or, might it not be an odd coincidence that just after the infamous Mr. Anan (see prior posts) says the UN will be setting up air traffic control in Aceh, the UN wants to show that it has an ATC system operating? What better way than to continue in the UN tradition of taking credit for others' work? And this just before Mr. Anan arrives in Indonesia on January 6.
At the risk of forgetting that the effort here is to rescue people, and at the risk of getting down in the gutter with the Transnational Socialist bureaucrats, I'd just like to say "Go f**k," to any and all who suggest our troops should "Go Blue."
Why would the President even think about agreeing to dirty the image of our armed forces by taking on what has become the very symbol of international graft and corruption.
I think it was Reinhold Niebuhr who mapped out the apparent fate of all organizations, who inevitably drift from their original "reason for being." They start with a mission, and then build an organization to accomplish that mission. To make a long story short, eventually the maintenance of the organization, "self-continuity," becomes the organization's "reason for being."
In this case, the mission of the U.N. is explicit. It's a religious faith upon which every Transnationalist weak sister heaps their sorry ideals. It is the very essence of a people who define compassion as the degree with which they appear generous with other people's money, buying blue beanies rather than water purifiers and medicine.
It's as if one of Castro's babbling spokepersons believed they had taken over the world.
Thank God for George W. Bush.
In 2002, I remember Muslims being urged to convert their holdings into the newly-minted Muslim Gold coin.
Do you know if many did?