The Old Roman by Orlando Plumbe

Time for a Kofi Break

From Glenn ("InstaPundit") Reynolds in today's WSJ op-ed page. WSJ.com - Time for a Kofi Break.

"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 in Darfur. And finally, the U.N. has so far played no significant role in defusing the Ukrainian crisis."

Even poeple who are more sanguine about the UN's ability to accomplish things should worry about the toll the UN's current inaction is taking.

Le test Global Part deux

It appears that Chirac's endorsement of the UN shows his usual good timing. UN staff to vote on no-confidence motion against Annan.

UN staff are expected to make an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan, union sources say, after a series of scandals tainted his term in charge of the world body.

Le Test Global Redux

CNN reports  Jacques Chirac's latest: "It's not for any given country to consider that a situation is open to stepping in and interfering," he told a question-and-answer session with students at Oxford University, according to the UK's Press Association.

"It's up to the international community to do so and particularly the U.N., which alone has the authority to interfere," he said in remarks apparently aimed at the United States. "

The UN serves an important purpose in that there must some place for diplomats and try to wrangle out that which can be wrangled out diplomatically. But why would any sane person think that any country would surrender its sovereignty to the UN?  It is not democratic, or representative. it has a history of corruption and inaction.  More on this later.