Red State - Kofi and the Post By: Mark Kilmer · Section: News
The Washington Post editorializes Saturday that Paul Volcker has proven that he is not "too chummy with the U.N. bosses" by blasting U.N. Oil for Food guy Golan Sevan. Kofi Annan has proven that he is not going to ignore this, the paper says, by pledging that he "will pursue disciplinary proceedings."
The paper then lays the blame for Oil for Food at the feet of "American, British and other companies in Iraq during that period."
In truth, Volcker's report meant little, Kofi continues to stonewall, and the U.N. as an institution is to blame.
The paper does advise that the U.N. be kept out of politics, as it "is an organization that is severely limited in its capacity to manage complex financial and political programs, both by its necessarily politicized hiring practices and by its lack of funds. It is not an organization that can operate well in war zones such as Bosnia or Congo, or in deeply corrupt countries such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq." So, the paper editorializes, the U.N. means well but hasn't been treated well enough to do politics. Instead of condemning the United Nations, the paper suggests that the only lesson one can draw from the report is that international organizations are not yet ready to take over the role of national governments.
While O.J. still searches for the real killer at all the right vacation spots, Kofi will get to the bottom of everything while jetting from Paris to Berlin. I wonder if the paper realizes that in order to truly extricate the U.N. from politics, they'd have to disband the U.N.S.C. And France's last tool of world power: it's unearned VETO.
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