U.N. reaches out to win back middle America

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | March 14, 2005 | Audrey Hudson

[Former Military Chick]

The United Nations is out of touch with most Americans, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff.

"In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N. ... and who feel that we've drifted away from a commitment to human rights, a commitment to help the poor of the world," Mark Malloch Brown said yesterday.

The United Nations is under fire for several scandals including the oil-for-food program, charges of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeeping forces and the resignation of a top official accused of sexual harassment, which Mr. Malloch Brown addressed in an exclusive interview with "Fox News Sunday."

The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its "human rights machinery" to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Governments making up the current membership include Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Libya is the outgoing chair of the committee.

The plan would "try and restore the credibility of this and have people on that commission who really are people of stature and reputation and record and come from countries of the same thing, with real human rights standing in the world," Mr. Malloch Brown said.

Human rights groups say rights violators on the commission stick together as a bloc to prevent criticism of one another — a conclusion that has been endorsed by a panel of experts advising Mr. Annan on U.N. reform.

Any changes proposed by Mr. Annan would have to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly, comprising all 191 U.N. member nations.

[CrawDaddyCA]

You forgot to add the 'barf alert' in the title!!

[WKUHilltopper]

For one thing, these UN blood suckers can start by getting out of our national parks!

[clee1]

This UN puke has it all wrong.

Middle America is tired of spending our hard-earned tax dollars on an organization that is totally ineffective at best; and completely corrupt, disfunctional, and actively anti-American at worst.

[jocon307]

"You forgot to add the 'barf alert' in the title!!"

Barf alert? I saw that title and I was SURE it was from scrappleface, and they always fool me.

One thing's for sure, this is a joke, although not funny.

[Billthedrill]

It was no "lack of support" from any government that forced the UN's hands into Saddam's till, it was out-and-out corruption about which nothing is being, or will ever be, done. The UN and its sundry NGO offshoots have priorities so skewed that the U.S. is cursed as oppressive to women for not supporting free abortions worldwide, while women are routinely beaten, shot, stoned, and deprived of the most basic human rights in the Islamic world, which is passed by in silence.

There's nothing much wrong with the UN's ideals and aspirations. It's the organization itself and the individuals in it that stink.

[Atchafalaya]

Buh bye!!!

[hosepipe]

[ "In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N.- Kofi Annan ]

He's delusional.. narcissic.. and totally corrupt...
But hes a nice guy in U.N. terms.. what a pit of vipers..

[hedgetrimmer]

There's nothing much wrong with the UN's ideals and aspirations

I'm pretty sure you're wrong on this one.

An organization founded by communists, with membership composed mainly of socialist, communist and totalitarian dictatorships countries has no redeeming qualities.

[spetznaz]

From the article: The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its "human rights machinery" to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Governments making up the current membership include Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Libya is the outgoing chair of the committee.

No need for anything more to be said!

[John Lenin]

As long as Kofi is still there the US is a JOKE. Get the heck out of my life you idiot gun grabbing moron !

[John Lenin]

As long as Kofi is still there the UN is a JOKE. Get the heck out of my life you idiot gun grabbing moron !

[Billthedrill]

You just cited its membership, which I said stinks. Its aspirations are another matter - check them out. Here's the UN Charter. Contrast these high ideals with the depths to which its members and administrators have fallen. Nothing wrong with promoting human rights, for example, except when the committee contains Cuba, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Libya. Nothing wrong with coordinating international relief efforts, except that the bureaucrats and media darlings charged with doing so didn't even show up in Indonesia until the U.S./Australian/Indian tsunami relief effort was two weeks old and then brought only talk. Nothing wrong with providing troops to stand between combatants, except when those troops turn out to be rapists and pedophiles themselves.

The problem isn't that the UN was evil from the outset, it's that it has been twisted into something it was never intended to be. I don't think it can be twisted back again.

[Centurion2000]

The United Nations is out of touch with most Americans, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world,

That would be because you have Mr Annon

[Rembrandt_fan]

Most of the foreign UN delegates and staff posted in New York come from societies generally ruled by a tiny minority of technocratic elites or oligarchs or whatever, even if there are democratic processes in place. Leading such insular, privileged lives, looking down from such lofty heights at the unwashed masses below, they usually fail to grasp the central fact of the UN's existence: it depends on at least the nominal support of the American middle class. I think the President's reelection brought this truth home.

Their obvious discomfiture tickles me no end.

[Bernard Marx]

An organization founded by communists, with membership composed mainly of socialist, communist and totalitarian dictatorships countries has no redeeming qualities.

The chief American architect of the U.N. was Alger Hiss, Communist, spy and traitor. That's all you need to know about this anti-American, world socialist organization. It's main function is to insert foreign spies into the U.S. under diplomatic cover.

[CBF]

here, here -- then they can get the hell out of the country

[Judith Anne]

This middle American despises everything the UN stands for, resents any tax dollars whatsoever going to those corrupt evil demonic minions, and wants the UN gone from US shores.

Nothing Mr. Annan does, no face lift, no "change" will EVER change that. I despise everything about the UN, including its origins and beginning.

[longtermmemmory]

Translation: The UN is in crisis mode and they are a drowning man grabbing the point of a sword.

If this is their best effort, then the deserve to go the way of the League of Nations.

[FairOpinion]

Mr. Malloch Brown (Kofi Annan's chief of staff) dismissed the congressional criticism and said "most of the world" stands by Mr. Annan and that his resignation would be tantamount to "inappropriate political assassination."

===

This just shows that they think they can con the US into thinking they are reforming the UN, while continuing as they are.

But Bush, Condi and Bolton won't let them get away with it.

I can hardly wait for the "UN RIP" announcement.

[longtermmemmory]

The UN would do away with the second amendment. They offer NOTHING to AMERICA AS A WHOLE not just middle america.

They are tax and spend (and steal into their personal pockets) bureaucrats who would target the earnigs of middle america.

[Lurker]

When you think about it, the League Of Nations had a better record of success than the UN.

L

[Judith Anne]

From my youngest years I've watched the USA be vilified publicly by other nations in the UN, and I have never had any use for any of their "humanitarian" programs either, which are without exception a corrupt drain on US generosity.

[spinestein]

[The United Nations is under fire for several scandals including the oil-for-food program...]


Just so nobody forgets, this is the scandal that paid Saddam Hussein tens of billions of dollars for oil that was sold at a discount to people represented by the members of the U.N. security council that opposed getting rid of Saddam Hussein. This was brokered by the U.N. itself as an exemption to its own economic embargo against Iraq that was starving to death Iraqi citizens and accompanied by a continuous stream of bribes and kickbacks all while the mass graves containing hundreds of thousands of corpses continued to be filled by Saddam Hussein.

But George W. Bush is to blame because he invaded Iraq to benefit his oil buddies.

F### you, U.N. criminals!

[hedgetrimmer]

to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
Agenda 21

The difference between America and the rest of the world is that our government is supposed to defend individual rights not human rights. Some Americans know the difference between these two, but not all. Human rights presupposes a collectivist viewpoint and a collectivist outcome and are granted by a collectivist authority, the UN. Individual rights means your rights as granted by the Creator, which you gain at birth and no government or pseudo government can take away.

[no_mm]

"..Their obvious discomfiture tickles me no end."

Well said.

[Rocky Mountain Mama]

"U.N. reaches out to win back middle America ..."

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Oh ... they are serious??

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

[Laz711]

Looks liked the UN is trying to put on its "Happy America" face. I wonder how they are going to respond when Middle America just ignores them and tells them where to stick it. I just pray to God that one of these days, soon, the UN will be kicked out of the US, no one in this country needs them, now or ever.

[Caipirabob]

U.N. reaches out to win back middle America

Note to UN: Think "Bloody stump".

Now go somewhere and quietly die of irrelevance.

[stbdside]

U.N. reaches out to win back middle America.

What's this guy been smoking???

[thoughtomator]

If the UN spent more time stopping the genocide in Sudan, and less time on PR, all of America would be much happier with it.

[MadIvan]

The UN is trying to square an impossible circle - it gives equal voice to the worst regimes as to the best run countries and expects them to get along. Not bloody likely.

Regards, Ivan

[JesseHousman]

U.N. reaches out to win back middle America

They never had us in the past, so how can they "reach out" (I hate that term) to win us back?

Get the UN out of the US and give us back our national parks that our fearless leaders stood by while they took them.

[SusaninOhio]

Maybe already been said - but in middle America, we have morals and know the difference between honest people and a group of lying thugs.

We will never respect the UN or any of its policies. It and its minions have gone too far over to the Dark Side to ever be relevent again (if it ever was).

[JZelle]

JUST GO AWAY!!

[RJL]

"In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America

No you're just what we expect from an unelected hard left elitist organization that aspires to be the world government.

The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its "human rights machinery" to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Just one of thousands of things needing to be corrected.

Please, UN, just go away. France would love to have you headquartered there. The UN thugs will love it in France, the people in the US will love to see you gone. It would be a win, win, win!

[bert]

....Middle America is tired of spending our hard-earned tax dollars on an organization that is totally ineffective at best; and completely corrupt, disfunctional, and actively anti-American at worst......

Worth repeating

[RJL]

To get the UN in touch with middle America you may contact them at:

inquiries@un.org

[Major Matt Mason]

It isn't just middle America, Kofi. Notice how this is a veiled putdown of middle America, though.

[dirtboy]

"In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N.

Wrong on that

... and who feel that we've drifted away from a commitment to human rights, a commitment to help the poor of the world," Mark Malloch Brown said yesterday.

Partially right on that. You can't drift away from a position you never held.

[N. Theknow]

To get the UN in touch with middle America you may contact them at:

submitted a response from my "middle" finer.

[N. Theknow]

To get the UN in touch with middle America you may contact them at:

submitted a response from my "middle" finger.

[lady lawyer]

Despite what the UN Charter says about national sovereignty, the UN's current "aspiration" is to become a sovereign world government, infringing more and more on the ability of nations to govern themselves.

And it wouldn't be a government that any Westerner would welcome. It would be a world-wide banana republic, in which modern, free states are outnumbered by third-world kleptocracies, united only by their desire to bleed the West dry.

[G32]

Oh, you mean the UN dropped its drive to disarm all Americans? Oh.. This is another sleezeball attempt to pretend we're the bad guys.