Free Republic

The U.N. can't possibly stop Iran. Sunday, September 3, 2006 12:01 a.m. Despite last week's United Nations deadline for Iran to give up its nuclear bomb program, Iran has done no such thing. The next diplomatic move is supposed to be for the U.N. to impose sanctions on Iran. That won't work, either.

Americans frequently express dissatisfaction with the United Nations. Their reasons are numerous: dragging its feet on Darfur; the corrupt practices exposed in the Oil-for-Food scandal; refusing to accept meaningful management and financial reforms; electing Iran as vice-chair of the Disarmament Committee and placing Cuba on the Human Rights Council, among numberless other foibles and failures. All of these complaints are justified, but they confuse the symptoms with the disease. The problem is not what the UN does but what it is, or, more accurately, what it is not. It remains based on the premise that there is such a thing...

One story that went the rounds in the Philippine National Penitentiary concerned the Cockroach Men. To hear the Bat tell it, the guards were always listening for escape plans being tapped out on the walls. "If you started tapping on walls, the guards would figure out you were trying something." No one asked the Bat how he knew, though he unquestionably belonged in the Big House. But you forgot that part and listened to the story. "So these two guys were about three cells apart on the row and they had to communicate without the guards knowing. How do you...

Today’s “International Community, that group of utterly feckless, corrupt, boobs produce lots of words, resolutions and demands but of course no substantial action. The head hypocrite and the worst Secretary General in U.N history Mr. Koffi Annan has overseen the continued devolution of an already failed , corrupt and inept institution. Mr. Annan’s has overseen the devolution of this never-good institution into an institution of moral and criminal depravity. Here are some of the things Mr. Anna’s U.N has accomplished: * Engaged in the rape and pimping of adolescent refugees in around the globe. * Overseen the largest bribery scandal...

The Irrelevant UN By Jenni Vinson Trejo January 4, 2005 On January 8, 1918 President Woodrow Wilson explained to the US House and Senate that the world had gotten smaller and that nations now affected each other so we needed to form a group of nations who agreed to work together. The world was embroiled in World War I. Wilson put forth fourteen points intended to serve as the basis for an alliance and world peace. Point 14 says: "A general association of nations should be formed on the basis of covenants designed to create mutual guarantees of the political...

Al AP is reporting that Bush was overheard expressing his frustration with Kofi Annan and liberal world leaders during the G8 summit. He was unaware that the microphone was still on when he told Tony Blair, "see the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive) and it's over." Bush also said that he felt like telling Annan to get on the phone with Assad instead of calling for a "cease fire". This clearly proves that it was Bush's hand that turned the tide of world opinion at the...

UN is like the Twilight Zone, says Bolton (Filed: 01/05/2006) In his first interview with a British newspaper, America's ambassador to the United Nations tells Alec Russell why it is in dire need of reform John Bolton was in his element. America's famously blunt UN ambassador and hundreds of other senior diplomats had just spent almost two hours twiddling their thumbs in a deadlocked meeting awaiting a letter from the secretary general. John Bolton says he is not combative. ‘I am assertive’ Then moments after the document arrived, the session was adjourned as the representatives of the developing world retired...

Failed, useless, dubious, impotent, pernicious, morally exhausted… Every crisis is an opportunity, a time when the fissures and cracks of received wisdom and worn-out habits of thought are exposed. The years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 have been such a time for the United States. Decades of intellectual corruption, moral flabbiness, and blithe indifference to the reality of a dangerous, unpredictable world all culminated on 9/11. Yet despite the gruesome severity of that lesson, the same bad habits persist. Nothing demonstrates this truth more clearly than the unwillingness of many Americans, including the current administration, to accept once and...

Bolton's sin is telling truth about system May 15, 2005 BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Remember the tsunami? Big story, 300,000 dead; America and other rich countries too "stingy" in their response; government ministers from every capital on earth announcing on CNN every 10 minutes more and more millions and gazillions. It was in all the papers for a week or two, but not a lot of water under the bridge since then, and as a result this interesting statistic may not have caught your eye: Five hundred containers, representing one-quarter of all aid sent to Sri Lanka since the...

When the world's nations gather to debate how best to conduct relations between themselves, it is only logical that a worldwide meeting place based on fairness and equality should be the forum. For half a century, that place has been the United Nations. However, modern times have shown that the idealistic solution has severe and sometimes catastrophic limitations. The spectacular failures of the U.N. have shown that its ability to counter malicious minded intent to deceive the organization is almost non-existent. In addition, its fairness doctrine which assume all nations participate with equal authority does not take into account that...

It was just two weeks ago, in a rented suite of offices on the 15th floor of an anonymous Manhattan office block, that Benon Sevan finally discovered his story would not hold. For months, the burly, bristling Armenian-Cypriot, known within the United Nations for both his bonhomie and bad temper, had insisted the talk of oil deals with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and strange petroleum companies in Panama had nothing to do with him. On January 21, however, the former head of the UN's Iraq oil-for-food program was confronted by proof of his deception by Paul Volcker. The former...

Two top U.S. lawmakers demanded UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to take an immediate action to end violence in the Sudanese western region of Darfur or resign. A spokesman for the UN rejected the call by Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, saying that Annan wasn’t in a position to force any action. The two lawmakers also criticized a UN report, released on Monday, for not recommending an action to end the fighting, claiming that the report was influenced by internal UN politics. "We cannot wait any longer for credible action on Darfur," Brownback said....

Only 34 percent of Americans believe the United Nations should be in charge of international relief efforts for victims of the South Asia tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people Dec. 26, according to a survey. The Rasmussen Reports poll of 1,000 adults also found 83 percent believe the United States is generous when confronted with the emergency needs of other nations. Just 12 percent believe the U.S. is stingy, a question apparently prompted by U.N. Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland's negative assessment of the U.S. and other Western nations in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. Support for...

UN 'failing to co-ordinate relief efforts' By David Ibison and Jake Lloyd Smith in Banda Aceh Published: January 7 2005 02:00 | Last updated: January 7 2005 02:00 Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, lands in the tsunami-ravaged Indonesian city of Banda Aceh today amid growing frustration on the part of aid agencies over what they say is the UN's inability to co-ordinate the world's response to the disaster. The UN is being criticised for its failure to organise dozens of aid groups in and around Banda Aceh more than a week and a half after the tsunami hit...

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan practically broke his arm the other day in his continuing effort to pat himself on the back. (Hey, someone has to do it.) Annan insisted that the United Nations' current commitment of 25 election monitors for the entire country of Iraq on Jan. 30 will get the job done. ``We have enough people in there to do the work,'' he said during a trip this week to Washington. ``And if need be, we'll put in the staff we need to get the work done. It's not a question of numbers; it's a question of what you...

Things are going badly for Kofi Annan. The Oil for Food scandal has revealed U.N. behavior regarding Saddam Hussein's Iraq that ranges from criminally inept to outright corrupt. Rape and pedophilia by U.N. peacekeepers haven't gotten the kind of attention they'd get if American troops were involved, but the scandals have begun to take their toll. And the U.N.'s ability to serve its crowning purpose — the "never again" treatment of genocide that was vowed after the Holocaust, and re-vowed after Cambodia and Rwanda — is looking less and less credible in the wake of its response to ongoing genocide...

There was a time when, if you wrote or spoke out against the United Nations, you would be dismissed as some "right-wing nutcase" who saw conspiracies or was some kind of "isolationist" who didn't understand the need for an international forum where the problems of the world could be resolved without resort to warfare. Turns out that the United Nations, founded in 1948, is not simply incapable of stopping wars and genocides, it is so utterly corrupt that it needs to be eliminated entirely in the hope that the many other existing international organizations, treaties, unilateral and bilateral relations can...

The UN Security Council voted unanimously today to step up the global campaign against terrorism, calling on all nations to prosecute or extradite anyone supporting, financing or participating in terrorist acts. The 15-0 vote at UN headquarters in New York culminated weeks of negotiations by Russia, which introduced the resolution after militants staged a series of attacks there including the suicide hijacking of two planes and the hostage-taking of a school in Beslan. It was adopted a day after several car bombings targeted Israelis in Egyptian resorts in Sinai. “We think these events stressed even more the urgency to take...

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest No Help For Iraq From UN Commentary on the NewsMonday, September 27, 2004 - Omega Letter Editor "Our struggle is your struggle, our victory will be your victory and if we are defeated, then that will be your defeat," Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told the UN General Assembly this week. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly's annual session Allawi urged governments to put behind them the divisions over Washington's invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein and later called "illegal" by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "Some countries objected to the war,...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has caused a storm with his recent admission to the BBC that the US invasion of Iraq was "illegal." Recall that in the tense days leading up to the US invasion of Iraq, Annan was pressed on numerous occasions to take a clear position on the legality or otherwise of a preemptive war against a UN member state, without authorisation of the Security Council, and at no point did he clearly state that an invasion would be illegal. On 17 March 2003, Annan was asked point blank by a reporter: "Should the United States go...

Kofi Annan & Co. might as well move to Brussels or Geneva. These are surreal times. Americans in Iraq are beheaded on videotape. Russian children are machine-gunned in their schools. The elderly in Israel continue to be blown apart on buses. No one — whether in Madrid, Istanbul, Riyadh, Bali, Tel Aviv or New York — is safe from the Islamic fascist, whose real enemy is modernism and Western-inspired freedom of the individual. Despite the seemingly disparate geography of these continued attacks, we are always familiar with the similar spooky signature: civilians dismembered by the suicide belt, car bomb, improvised...

The use of a single word in diplomacy can often mark a significant moment and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's use of the word "illegal" about the war in Iraq is one such moment. He has carefully avoided the word before. His previous phrasing was to say that the war was "not in conformity with the UN Charter". Mr Annan tends to avoid directness This was a typical diplomatic phrase designed to get over the meaning, but to avoid directness. It was not exactly a ringing phrase and Mr Annan was content with that. Now, in a BBC interview,...

The United Nations recently passed another blatantly anti-Israel resolution in support of extremist Arab Palestinian claims. There is no longer any point in entering into any serious dialogue with this organization. In countless ways, over many years, the UN has proven to be a discredited organization, with lawless elements, which can no longer claim to have any moral standing. Very few of its 191 members can be counted upon to put principle ahead of crass expediency. The hopeful vision that accompanied its founding in 1945 has long since evaporated. It was the United Nations that recognized Israel in 1947. Therefore,...

When Libya is in charge of human rights and Israel is hysterically condemned, it's time to rethink the world body's effectiveness The United Nations recently passed another blatantly anti-Israeli resolution in support of extremist Arab Palestinians claims. There is no longer any point in entering into dialogue with this organization. In countless ways, over many years, the UN has proven itself to be a largely criminal and discredited organization that can no longer claim to have any moral standing. Very few of its 191 members can be counted upon to put principle ahead of crass expediency. The hopeful vision that...

<p>April 7, 2004 -- TEN years ago today the Rwanda massacres began in earnest. It was the worst genocide since the Holocaust. And it will forever be a stain on the record of the Clinton administration, the United Nations and the whole so-called "international community."</p>

Think of Iraq as ten times more volatile than Kosovo and you have an idea just how bad UN biases against efficient privatization could make Baghdad look. And remember, in Kosovo Serbs and Albanians fight each other, but don't attack NATO. We all know how that differs from Iraq. In the five years since the NATO intervention in Kosovo, the devastated former Yugoslav province has lost the attention of global media and political leaders. This is dismaying for its residents, who have grown to depend on the world powers to assist them in finding their way, but is also unfortunate...

The United Nations is the tooth fairy of American politics: Few adults believe in it, but it's generally regarded as a harmless story to amuse the children. Since 9/11, however, the UN has ceased to be harmless, and the Democratic presidential candidates' enthusiasm for it has ceased to be amusing. The United Nations has emerged at best as irrelevant to the terrorist threat that most concerns us, and at worst as an obstacle to our winning the war on terrorism. It must be reformed. And if it cannot be reformed, the United States should give serious consideration to withdrawal. The...

<p>The United Nations is the tooth fairy of American politics: Few adults believe in it, but it's generally regarded as a harmless story to amuse the children. Since 9/11, however, the UN has ceased to be harmless, and the Democratic presidential candidates' enthusiasm for it has ceased to be amusing.</p>

When the U.S. 4th Infantry Division pulled Saddam Hussein from his hole in the ground on December 13, 2003, the Iraqi dictator was meek, bizarrely offering to negotiate with the U.S. By contrast, Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary general who strained every sinew to stop the war of liberation and now aims to thwart U.S. postwar plans, remains thoroughly defiant. Yet if there is one person on the international stage who deserves to be called to account for his conduct over Iraq, it is Kofi Annan. Missing from the debate on how and where Saddam should be tried has been...

A deadlock over the formation of a new Cambodian government is threatening to derail plans to try surviving members of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime for genocide and crimes against humanity. More than five months after general elections, the ruling Cambodian People's Party and the two biggest opposition parties are still at loggerheads over the establishment of a coalition government required by the country's constitution. Senior legal officials have warned that unless a political compromise is reached within the next few weeks, plans to start the trial this year of up to 10 former leaders of the regime blamed for...

Twelve months ago, the international community heaved a sigh of relief as the major powers appeared to reach a compromise on how to manage Iraq. But Washington's determination to act on its own cut short the role of U.N. weapons inspectors and challenged the very notion that the organization has a role to play in issues of peace and security. Today, the international scene is much altered. Bogged down in Iraq, Washington is relying on multilateral processes to address threats of nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. It also has backed down on protectionist tariffs on steel imports condemned...

<p>In the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture, Iraqi government officials have become quite open about voicing their displeasure with the United Nations' failure to help their people during decades of oppression by the deposed Ba'athist dictatorship. After U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave a speech to the Security Council on Tuesday ruling out an early return of the United Nations to Iraq, he was sharply criticized by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.</p>

In 1942, FDR spoke of a “United Nations” and the hope it could bring to a world torn apart by war. The dream was a good one. The reality has become a nightmare. The future of the United Nations is far from secure as it becomes more bloated, corrupt and centered on its own desire to dictate to the world. Does the UN do the job it was formed to do? From its own charter on Human Rights: Article 4: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their...

<p>After four uncelebrated decades patrolling remote cease-fire zones, the United Nations peacekeeping forces won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. "We cannot forget these brave soldiers," Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said, noting that 733 had been killed on assignment.</p>

Iraqi minister tells UN to stop sniping, start helping Tue Dec 16, 1:57 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s foreign minister told the UN Security Council to stop bickering over the war that brought down Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and come together to help rebuild his shattered nation. In a pointed address delivered with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) on hand, Hoshyar Zebari said the United Nations (news - web sites) had failed to stand up to Saddam to defend the Iraqi people, and called for a swift UN...

<p>NEW YORK — A U.N. monitoring committee complained yesterday that 108 nations have failed to file required reports on their actions in the war against terrorism, such as freezing assets and reporting the names of suspected terrorists.</p> <p>Frustrated committee members said they are considering asking for a stronger Security Council resolution with "more teeth" to force compliance from member states.</p>

Saturday, October 18, 2003 at 07:00 JST TOKYO — U.S. President George Bush told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over dinner Friday night that the United Nations is "old" and its structure should be reformed, according to a senior Japanese foreign ministry official. Bush made the comment after Koizumi asked him to "consider making better use of the United Nations" to spread America's ideals of freedom and democracy, the official told reporters. Koizumi's comments, which was made at a time of a rift in the international community over the U.N. role in war-torn Iraq, followed remarks about the importance of Japan-U.S....

<p>The apparent failure of the U.S. push for another U.N. resolution on Iraq is at least a clarifying moment. A body incapable of agreeing to endorse even post facto reconstruction could certainly never have been expected to enforce its Iraq resolutions in the first place. So much for the argument that a kinder, gentler approach by the Bush Administration would have won U.N. support.</p>

<p>Diplomats said the new text offered the U.N. a strengthened role in Iraq but not the central role in overseeing the country's transition called for by countries such as France, Germany and Russia. Britain indicated it could co-sponsor the text, the Financial Times said.</p>

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- There is an old saying that "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." The modern version might be "the United Nations passed resolutions while the world was destroyed by terrorists." President Bush gave a brilliant but useless speech last week at the United Nations, speaking on the need to combat global terrorism and rogue dictators before they strike or acquire weapons of mass destruction because the stakes are too high to do nothing. Unfortunately, "doing nothing" is exactly what the United Nations has in mind. The United Nations is at a "fork in the road," according to Secretary General...

New York is often called the centre of the world, and for this week at least, that was true. All the world's leaders - including US President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, and Russia's Vladimir Putin - were in town, as were other major players in international affairs, like the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and the dapper Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan; Megawati Soekarnoputri from Indonesia, and the veteran Mahathir Mohamad from Malaysia. There was even a delegation from Iraq (who travelled in an armoured vehicle, not surprisingly, since one of their number was shot and killed just days before...

<p>The White House yesterday said President Bush never intended to directly ask other nations for help in postwar Iraq during his visit to the United Nations, leaving that task instead to aides.</p> <p>One of those aides, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, yesterday said the administration is making progress in forging a U.N. Security Council resolution that would lay the groundwork for an influx of more foreign troops and money.</p>

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In a stinging attack on unilateral U.S. action in Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac said on Tuesday the war had put the United Nations through one of the most severe crises in its history. Speaking after President Bush called for world support for the U.S.-led occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, Chirac said: "No one can act alone in the name of all and no one can accept the anarchy of a society without rules." "The war, launched without the authorization of the Security Council, shook the multilateral system," he said. "The United Nations has just been...

I am looking for the picture that was posted in here last year of Kofi Annan with his head in his hands during Bush's Sept. 12 2002 speech as if he is saying, "Holy crap, I have just become irrelevant!!". If anyone can repost it I will appreciate it. Thanks.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat told hundreds of supporters Saturday that a United Nations vote condemning an Israeli decision to remove him is of the "utmost importance" as a sign of international support for the Palestinians. Israel dismissed the U.N. General Assembly resolution, which passed 133-4 with 15 abstentions Friday, and said the Palestinians should focus their energy on fighting terrorism. Israel also insisted that a new government being formed by incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia cut links to Arafat. Israel says Arafat is tainted by terrorism. In Tel Aviv, several thousand Israelis marched to the Defense Ministry,...

<p>It's been a long time since Americans diverted much time from their day to pay heed to the United Nations. One recalls how years back the eloquence of the first Israeli ambassador to the U.N., the late Abba Eban, transfixed even schoolchildren in the U.S. Pat Moynihan attracted some attention to the free-parking palace on the East River while he was U.S. ambassador, but of late the American heartland hasn't given much notice.</p>

<p>It's been a long time since Americans diverted much time from their day to pay heed to the United Nations. One recalls how years back the eloquence of the first Israeli ambassador to the U.N., the late Abba Eban, transfixed even schoolchildren in the U.S. Pat Moynihan attracted some attention to the free-parking palace on the East River while he was U.S. ambassador, but of late the American heartland hasn't given much notice.</p>

Is the United Nations finished or is it just irrelevant? A little bit of both is the growing opinion of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment, which points to the world body's incapacity to meet the threat of international terrorism. In fact, it is not just the United Nations' flibbertigibbet attitude toward Iraq that is at the bottom of this conclusion. Former U.S. secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger, in an exclusive interview with Insight, says that the failure of the U.N. Security Council to enforce its resolutions against Iraq is a structural failure that cannot be repaired. "The way in which all...

<p>NEW YORK - Barely three months after the U.N. crisis erupted over Iraq, proposals for reforming the body are emerging in an effort to salvage its relevance. Most center on the expansion of the 15-member Security Council to better reflect world opinion.</p>

Meanwhile, Back at the UN.. Jack Engelhard There's a war going on. Will somebody please tell Kofi and the rest of the gang that can't shoot straight? Better yet, don't tell them. Let those delinquents continue to curse and condemn the rest of us -- most of us who are Christians and Jews -- and we'll pretend that we still give a damn. Still, the United Nations is a fine institution. We need the place. We sure don't want these people running around loose. Keep them off our streets! You want Libya in your neighborhood? True, their general assemblies and...