What Is Annanism?

NRO ^ | 22 Dec 06 | Victor Davis Hanson

[rellimpank]

The triumph of the therapeutic over the tragic.

Everyone seems to take some joy in listening to outgoing secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, especially during the holidays. But just as with other such ethicists as a lip-biting Bill Clinton or creased-browed Jimmy Carter, Annan is as publicly acclaimed as he is privately ignored. We like such itinerant moralists — more when they are off the job than on, and always in retrospect rather than contemporaneously. As we watch them hedge, we somehow feel apologetic rather than outraged over their latest deception.

The secretary-general — introduced with fulsome praise by Sen. Chuck Hagel — recently gave a remarkable farewell speech at the Truman Library. It was delivered in his customary soothing inflection with impeccable diction, and it was just as customarily predictable — the content was as historically inaccurate as it was exemplary of what we have now come to know as “Annanism.”

[rellimpank]

--good piece on Kofi the Phoney---

[Red Badger]

Same as Onanism, except on a world stage........

[Hegemony Cricket]

dang it - beat me by that much

[Ouderkirk]

Kifi Anus...still a third world loser.

[Red Badger]

By a stroke........

[Sicon]

What Is Annanism?

It's like feckless, corrupt stupidity...
only more feckless, more corrupt, and... stupider?

[MinuteGal]

Fantastic article. I especially liked the sentence on John Bolton, hah.

The full column is a must-read. The writer nails it.

I wonder if any of our elected mucky-mucks in D.C. ever read articles like this.

Leni

[rellimpank]

--IMHO,-- anything by VDH should be required reading for elected officials.

However , I doubt that many of them understand the big words nor do they have sufficient attention span to handle compound sentences--after all, they've all been raised with the TV on---

[PGalt]

Outstanding article on that UNaccountable POS.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The man certainly can write.

[newcthem]

I'm beginning to believe it is damn doubtful that our elected "leaders" have the ability to read, let alone expend the effort to follow a reasoned piece by anyone of the caliber of VDH.

[MinuteGal]

Amen to that!

Leni

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"That is why this country has historically been in the vanguard of the global human rights movement. But that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism. When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused."

But then, appearances are sometimes - indeed, usually - deceiving. "Appearances" are controlled by journalists grinding political axes.

[neverdem]

bump & a ping

[neverdem]

ping

[PzLdr]

"Annanism": An anal fissure; a hemorrhoid.

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links:    FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson 
            His website: http://victorhanson.com/    
                NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
New Link!    http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

[knighthawk]

When has the U.N. ever “accepted” anything approaching a “shared responsibility”? Both Saddam and the Taliban murdered with impunity. Iran has not only violated U.N. non-proliferation accords, but serially promised to wipe out Israel, and thus get credit for a first Holocaust it now denies to Hitler.

[rellimpank]

--and I feel the same way about anything that Theodore Dalrymple publishes--

[knighthawk]

Ping