Deputy secretary-general Mark
Malloch Brown said the US needs
to tell its people why the UN matters
Picture: AFP/Getty
Posted on 06/09/2006 12:21:46 AM PDT by familyop
Deputy secretary-general Mark
Malloch Brown said the US needs
to tell its people why the UN matters
Picture: AFP/Getty
THE United Nations' British second-in-command was at the centre of a furious diplomatic row with the United States yesterday.
The UN deputy secretary-general, Mark Malloch Brown, antagonised Washington after suggesting that the US administration was happy to use the UN as a diplomatic tool while failing to defend it from critics at home.
Mr Malloch Brown told a conference in New York that "the prevailing [US] practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable. You will lose the UN one way or another."
Washington, he said, was too happy to tolerate "too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping".
His comments provoked a furious response from John Bolten, the pugnacious American ambassador to the UN. "I spoke to the secretary-general this morning, I said 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time," said Mr Bolten.
Mr Malloch Brown told reporters after his speech. "You [the US] have to engage to help make this institution a better institution. And you need to engage, if I dare say so, with your own public opinion to explain better why the UN matters to American interests."
He argued that good news about the UN rarely reached the US. "Much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News."
"The UN's role is in effect a secret in middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world," he said.
A recent Gallup poll reported that 64 per cent of Americans had a poor opinion of the United Nations and the organisation is frequently and routinely portrayed as an anti-American body that coddles and makes excuses for dictatorial regimes around the world while proving itself unable to live up to the lofty goals it sets itself. Sex scandals involving UN peacekeepers, the corrupt administration of the UN's oil-for-food programme in Iraq and the organisation's reluctance to support the US-British invasion of Iraq have all fed American dissatisfaction with the UN.
"Americans complain about the UN's bureaucracy, weak decision-making, the lack of accountable modern management structures and the political divisions of the general assembly here in New York," acknowledged Mr Malloch Brown. "And my response is, 'guilty on all counts'."
However, he said he UN could only change and reform its practices if the US were committed to the organisation. "In the eyes of the rest of the world, US commitment tends to ebb much more than it flows. And in recent years, the enormously divisive issue of Iraq and the big stick of financial withholding have come to define an unhappy marriage."
Tensions between Washington and the UN will come to a head later this month when its budget runs out. Washington, by far the biggest financial contributor to the UN, has insisted that it implement reforms before the US will agree to fund a new budget.
Mr Malloch Brown's "condescending, patronising tone about the American people" was the worst part about the speech said Mr Bolton.
"Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant," Mr Bolton said. "It's just illegitimate.
"When a member of the [UN] secretariat criticises ... the intelligence of the people of a member government, that's a very questionable activity. Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations."
He called on Mr Annan to "personally and publicly" repudiate his deputy's speech. But Mr Annan's spokesman said the secretary-general stood by Mr Malloch Brown's comments.
Mr Malloch Brown's speech was delivered at a conference sponsored by two think tanks, the Center for American Progress and the Century Foundation.
Better yet - since they (supposedly) need a new HQ - we could move them off of Manhattan altogether and they could build a brand new HQ right here:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bv.html
Just King Koffi, the Koffikleptocrats, and assorted pinheads - all by themselves in the far reaches of the South Atlantic with the penguins and seals. Maybe we could even fly Mr. Bolton in once every 6 months or so to yell at 'em. (I'd bet he'd prefer teleconferencing with them, though.) Since it's Norwegian territory, they could hand out the Nobel prizes there, too.
Screw you Malloch, and the pony you rode in on.
Yes, I believe they come in "Pathetic Socialist Boot licker Scum" size too, Malloch.
The Indonesian chicken coop did have the added bonus of getting them to take a serious look at H5N1 (Bird Flu), though...and somehow the trimmings (droppings?) seemed appropriate...
And we all know how tight Rush & Fox are with the Gallup folks.
Memo To Mark Malloch Brown RamaLama DingDong:
Kiss ( 22% of ) Our American "Arse", is it?
Oh good another Brit Yank freeper war. pity you yanks are all one shot wonders.
Only joking I do like ya really but come out with a better anti Brit rant that I can sink my teeth into.
Jokes about teeth always go down well, because I can then come out with my joke about the USN getting rid of Carriers because they can use the average American butt as a flight deck.
;)
LOL!
So we have the people in the Ozarks, and you have the people to your north. ;-)
Thank God for Ambassador Bolton. All we'd need is the likes of Madeline Allnuts down in Turtle Bay.
If the UN mattered, it wouldn't need a pep squad.
If a single Briton does something stupid, with certain Freepers, it's an indictment of the entire nation, making us nothing more than an English-speaking variant of France. Frankly, given the number of soldiers who have died in the field, this is a disgusting point of view.
Furthermore, what this perspective fails to realise is that there are idiots in every nation. The idiots in America are not the end of that country. The idiots in Britain are not the end of ours.
Regards, Ivan
Okay. Let's say that the corruption, effectiveness ... are all improved dramatically. It still doesn't matter. Millions of us here in the US are simply not on the "world government" program and we never will be. The UN shouldn't be anything more than a debating society; a forum for discussion on what ultimately turn out to be bilateral or multilateral agreements. The world perception that "unilateral" action is forbidden and that UN approval is required for everything derives from the UN's vision of itself as the grand federal structure over the world.
We have no intentions of subjecting ourselves to world government regardless of how sincere or efficient that government may be. This complainer just doesn't get it. Bolton is right. The guy is directly attacking our intelligence. Cut off the budget!
What gets me is the lack of understanding on the part of
Mr. Brown, here in America the government doesn't CONTROL
the people or what they think.
Off to work now will check in later, don't let the anglobashers get you'all down. We know who our allies are.
To the second in command at the UN; This is just a reminder that here in the US we do in fact have REAL Freedom of Speech and REAL Freedom of the Press. That means our government does not have the ability to censor or stifle information from the American people. It is the first blatant call for dhimmitude coming from the UN.
The real headline to this story should have been:
UN Attacks US for Freedom of the Press
Yeah, he would.
The United Nations is one of the largest sucking holes that our tax money goes down each year.
The likes of Annan and all the other gun-grabbing, liberal, one-world do-nothing pieces of dog excrement steal every penny they can, and what they can't steal for themselves, they direct into the coffers of the likes of Mugabe and other lowlifes around the world.
We need to get the hell out of the UN.
And turn that building in NY into a detention center for all the illegal invaders that we catch, before we send them back to the pus holes from whence they came.
We could start with Kofi Annan.
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