I always like to have an image of the person before me when I read such foolishness. She's an idget in my book and here she is for your perusal.
Posted on 01/01/2005 3:36:16 PM PST by quidnunc
President Bush has announced that an alliance of the US, India, Australia and Japan will co-ordinate a humanitarian drive.
But Ms Short said the effect of the parallel coalition would be to undermine the UN.
She said only the UN had the "moral authority" to lead the relief work.
Ms Short resigned as international development secretary over the Iraq war.
"I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to co-ordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up," she said.
"Only really the UN can do that job," she told BBC Radio Four's PM programme.
"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."
Ms Short said the countries involved could not boast good records on their response to major disasters.
The US was "very bad at coordinating with anyone" and India had its own problems, Ms Short said.
"I don't know what that is about but it sounds very much, I am afraid, like the US trying to have a separate operation and not work with the rest of the world through the UN system," she added.
Well, we're heading into Day 7 of the Asian quake/tsunami crisis. And the UN relief effort? Nowhere to be seen except at some meetings and on CNN and BBC as talking heads. In this corner of the Far Abroad, it's Yanks and Aussies doing the hard, sweaty work of saving lives.
Check out this interview (on the UN's official website) with SecGen Annan and Under SecGen Egeland shows,
Mr. Egeland: Our main problems now are in northern Sumatra and Aceh. <...> In Aceh, today 50 trucks of relief supplies are arriving. <...> Tomorrow, we will have eight full airplanes arriving. I discussed today with Washington whether we can draw on some assets on their side, after consultations with the Indonesian Government, to set up what we call an “air-freight handling centre” in Aceh.
Tomorrow, we will have to set up a camp for relief workers — 90 of them — which is fully self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging, everything, because they have nowhere to stay and we don't want them to be an additional burden on the people there.
I provided this to some USAID colleagues working in Indonesia and their heads nearly exploded. The first paragraph is quite simply a lie. The UN is taking credit for things that hard-working, street savvy USAID folks have done. It was USAID working with their amazing network of local contacts who scrounged up trucks, drivers, and fuel; organized the convoy and sent it off to deliver critical supplies. A UN “air-freight handling centre” in Aceh? Bull! It's the Aussies and the Yanks who are running the air ops into Aceh. We have people working and sleeping on the tarmac in Aceh, surrounded by bugs, mud, stench and death, who every day bring in the US and Aussie C-130s and the US choppers; unload, load, send them off. We have no fancy aid workers' retreat -- notice the priorities of the UN? People are dying and what's the first thing the UN wants to do? Set up "a camp for relief workers" one that would be "fully self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging, everything."
The UN is a sham.
(Diplomad in The Diplomad, January 1, 2005)
To Read This Article Click Here
Sorry we don't trust the UN to handle our funds....is that the message we are sending to the world? It is an appropriate no confidence vote.
Meanwhile, Kofi spent three days after the tsunamis on vacation at tony Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
I just posted that Diplomad blog on another thread..I am burning...
They always want to "lead" when US is DOING something. UN is nowhere when something has to be done. By the time they get "organized" it is usually too late.
STFU
This president continues to pull down the pants of the U.N. - repeatedly exposing it's puny little self for the world to see.
Michael Totten is nonplussed.What a bizarre assertion. If the UN didn’t exist, what on earth would we do? Would south Asia drown in wreckage and mud while we tried to create a UN from scratch before we could send in some aid? ... The US, Japan, India, and Australia don’t have the moral authority for crisis relief? Who bestows this moral authority? Clare Short? Who gave her the authority to do that?
Leaving the issues of moral authority aside, the operational question is whether the world is better and more efficiently served by the UN organizational model. The real thought experiment that proponents of UN legitimacy must pass is whether they would entrust Paris, not just Kigali to the bureaucrats on the East River. Clare Short is probably perfectly happy to entrust Rwandan lives to the United Nations; whether she would entrust her own to it is another question.
Clare apparently isn't aware that Kofi was out of pocket. He was on vacation, skiing, the first 3 days of the disaster. And on his return, he plans to have meetings during this coming week.
Well, Clare, the US Military and other organizations couldn't wait for Kofi. The people needed help and assistance immediately.
But, Clare, we're sure you can find plenty of other things to whine about.
We had an oil-for-food-for-graft scandal, does she now want a contributions-for-food and bottled water-for-graft scandal to go with it?
Just when you think the fools of the world can't get any more asinine, they top themselves.
They seem to only criticize the United States (under Bush). They'll dig and dig and find something wrong with everything he does or says.
This bloated and corrupt institution has as much moral authority as a petty thief. The only question is whether they are active criminals or merely flaccid enablers of active criminals. I vote both.
Must be running short on Food for Oil scam money and need a bit more to spread around! SCREW the UN!
I'd advise Short to not list "food for oil," Sudan and Ruanda as examples of the proper exercise, of that "moral authority."
I'm hearing the UN and EU committee meetings start in about another week, once winter solstice holiday is completed.
"Moral authority" doesn't put food and water into empty bellies when the roads are washed out. Aircraft carriers, gator-freighters, C-130's and helicopters do.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=10&u=/ap/20050101/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_us_military
World - AP Asia
Tsunami Survivors Mob U.S. Aid Copters
There's your moral authority..The UN talks..we do..
Maybe if the UN would do its job, there would be more of an incentive for the US to rely on the UN. The truth is that the UN, whose primary function is to facilitate peace, has been more of an impediment to peace in recent years than a facilitator. It failed to engineer peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. It failed to engineer peace in Afghanistan, Iraq, and between Pakistan and India. It failed in Bosnia. It failed in Russia.
Why should the US bet the farm on a failed institution like the UN?
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In Short...shut up!
Of course the UN's will be catered by Elaine's.
The UN response to any "crisis" is to form committees to investigate and propose "resolutions". And none of the ACTION the US and others are taking has been "approved" by UN "resolution". Hence, the actions taken to save and help people will be declared "illegal" by the UN.
I guess by "moral authority" the Leftist swine must mean the ability to pillage relief funds while pretending to care so very, very deeply.
Jackson Hole should have declared itself a Kofi Free zone! Too bad he didn't get buried in an avalanche.
Short fund the UN and some one please short short sheet Ms Short.
I always like to have an image of the person before me when I read such foolishness. She's an idget in my book and here she is for your perusal.
She is a backbencher now and has NO authority...She is an ugly duck.
In the case of the Pallies and the Israelis I think it is much worse. The UN has sustained, even perpetuated, the conflict by setting up and maintaining 'refugee camps', refugee camps that have been in existence for over fifty years now (okay, I'll be generous, since the Six Day War, thirty seven years). Where else in the world do you see 'refugee camps' with high rise apartment buildings and all the aspects of cities? All so the UN can continue skimming money.
I don't cares what she thinks niether does Bush. She's not getting any of my money.
Maybe she can tell the Europeans vacationing and complaining what a mess it is down there to start help cleaning up.
Where are the European countries whose ex-colonies were smitten by this Tsunami? Surely they ripped off enough from these poor nations before they gained independence.
The UN is pissed they can not steal our money anymore. Next they will go after Ohio and try to overturn the election.
Ms. Short should have her shoes taken away and be kept pregnant.......any volunteers?...besides another member of the un I mean...
FMCDH(BITS)
UN Moral authority like in the oil for food scandal.
UN is as useless and Mammary glands on a Boar Hog.
Translation: The UN does not have the "moral authority" to lead the relief work.
The UN is becoming obsolete and is an empty shell of an organization. Their leader is a joke and what they represent is nothing more than a global sham.
Those poor folks can't wait for the UN to get up off it's fat a$$ and do something. They need body bags, food and water, NOW!! Fortunately, the US and her allies in the region have already moved to help the afflicted areas.
The US military CAN run and organize at Army (3-4 Corps) level and run operations that way. They have the Command and Control architecture and experience. The UN is a bunch of middle men bureaucrats who HAVE NO CAPACITY of their own to do anything and are at best amateurs. If we make the UN in charge they will just speak on our behalf. They will still need us to do everything. It’s not like the UN owns ships, fleets of SH-60s or a Brigade of Marines. All the UN ends up doing is managing our effort. Probably not as well and often even corrupt at that I see no reason to make them manage our effort. They failed their litmus test.
Red6
How many C-130's does the UN have to deliver food and supplies.?
How many Helicopters does the UN have to deliver supplies and take out the victims when cars just wont get there?
How many ships does the Un have to make potable water?
How many troops do they have to dig in and help with the Rescue?
Why should an outfit with none of these things be in charge of coordinating them when they know nothing of the capabilities of the equipment.
It would be a bit like having a Little Leaguer try to coach the Red Sox.
Turning over relief efforts to the UN would be like turning over the Salvation Army to the Sopranos.
In short (haha, no pun intended), it's ALL personal and ALL business.
"UN is as useless and Mammary glands on a Boar Hog."
True, yet it boggles my mind trying to understand why their headquarters are in our country. Can't these mopes go somewhere else where they are welcome? Not only that, but now they want to expand and use parkland to do it!
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41854
You wrote:
"It failed to engineer peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. It failed to engineer peace in Afghanistan, Iraq, and between Pakistan and India. It failed in Bosnia. It failed in Russia.
Why should the US bet the farm on a failed institution like the UN?"
We shouldn't. It makes no difference to anyone on the left whether their policies produce a positive result. It is the policy that matters; not the results. They do not apologize for their failures and why should they? Their whole philosophy is one of failure. If they fail, no one has been elevated to success which (suits them just fine). Liberalism is a mental disorder.
This combo photo taken 26 December 2004 shows (top-L) Phuket's Chedi resort staff preparing for the day as the first swell edges toward the lawn followed by the arrival of the second and third waves (top-R and bottom-L) respectively, which engulfed the hotel restaurant and its surrounding gardens and the final photo showing the water at its crest, flooding the whole area. Aid pledges for Asia's tsunami victims topped 1.6 billion dollars on a tide of New Year sympathy, but the United Nations (news - web sites) warned it would take weeks for help to reach many survivors and that the death toll would likely rise to 150,000.(AFP/Joanne Davis)
US to Short: Bite Me!
She is an idiot !
I got ya. I agree with you too. I just like to write and felt like expanding on the topic. :)
Red6
Thanks for posting this.
I watched CNN today--granted, it's a U.S. cable station, but all I saw were U.S. ships, Indian ships, and a couple who had their own airline service who, on their own initiative, is bringing supplies. And I'm sure, given CNN's bias, that if the UN were there, we'd be seeing video & pictures of it.
I was so glad to see Old Glory on the sleeves of the people delivering food & water--I hope that can instill some confidence in the U.S. in that part of the world.
Meanwhile, Kofi spent three days after the tsunamis on vacation at tony Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
He was reportedly tskiing the tsnowy tslopes...
"only the UN had the "moral authority" to lead the relief work"
Well .. the UN's "moral authority" was on vacation - skiing - and couldn't be bothered.
In the meantime, the USA did what it always does - it used it's leadership to solve the problem. Once again .. the USA steps up and does the job the UN was supposed to be doing.
These idiots are completely ignoring all of the weather related problems the US has faced during 2004 as well as the support the US provided to the victims of 9/11. Although not as horrific as the problems in Asia, they still took a sizeable total on the budgets of the US and it's citizens. They forget the adage, Charity begins at home.
Another point they seem to be ignoring by choice is, where is the aid and support from muslim countries?
"Another point they seem to be ignoring by choice is, where is the aid and support from muslim countries?"
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No kidding.
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