Tim Blair

Not without a security council mandate!

Didn't you hear? Kofi Annan has been reassigned. He's now the UNSOBB-United Nations Secretary of Brass Balls. The nerve.....

Probably because they're too familiar with the fact that he told 10 Belgian soldiers to surrender in Rwanda.

"Why doesn’t he ask France or Germany?"

Because he wants "to take (blinking neon colored major clue)DECISIVE(/blinking neon colored major clue) action to stop the war in Lybia... I mean Liberia."

Actually, you've probably heard that the Frogs offered to contribute some of their defence forces to our peace keeping coalition in the Solomons. Apparently, John Howard wanted the peace-keeping to be 'regional'.

Perhaps if we consider that there haven't been any street demos against it then any action is not considered "unilateral".

"Unilateral" action only occurs after significant protest - even if more than one country decides to take action.

Time to zap some sammys!

TimT, in relation to John Howard saying thanks but no thanks to the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys, I reckon he had General Patton's great quote in mind: "I'd rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me".

No, what Patton said was he'd rather be up the behind of a French division. He never had much taste.

I think Kofi is desperately hoping we'll walk into another Mogadishu-style trap in Liberia, so that the US will stop kicking ass and go back to being a feckless, castrated producer of aid money for murderous tyrants.

Read the whole transcript... check out the quotes from Bush:
"Ah, we're continuing to monitor the situation very closely.

We're working with the United Nations to, ah, affect policy necessary to get the cease-fire back in place."

1. They've included the 'ah's.... now I've not seen the report, however I assume that some of the other commentators had less than perfect dictation.

2. "affect" correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't the word Effect be used here? Did the ABC make an honest mistake or did they think that they could slip in the wrong word into the transcript to make Bush look stupid?

Thanks,
Steve C

Steve,
No, affect is correct. "Affect" is a verb, "effect" is a noun.

http://www.particonstitutionnel.net/p1054001.htm Kofi, Ghanian - The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights practices, released in February of this year, describes a religious tradition called "Trokosi" in Ghana: "Although the Constitution prohibits slavery, religious servitude--Trokosi--exists on a limited scale. In June 1998, Parliament passed and the President signed legislation to ban the practice of Trokosi in comprehensive legislation to protect women and children's rights. Human rights activists believe that the goal of eradicating the Trokosi practice is attainable with the new law; however, the practice persists." But how limited is it? Some reports say there are around 5,000 Trokosi slaves within Ghana. But local humanitarian groups say the figure could be as high as 10,000 to 12,000. Under this system, virgin girls are given to priests to appease the gods for crimes committed by relatives of the family. ... On December 2nd, 1999, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Annan, said that this "is not a time for complacency in the fight against slavery, but a time for action."

He should go back to his native country of Ghana and help abolish slavery.

Hate to be pedantic, Morph, but "effect" is also a verb, meaning to "bring about", and is the correct word in this case.

Tim:
“Why doesn’t he ask France or Germany?”

Perhaps because it has been ECOWAS and the US that have been engaged in discussion with the UN.
Looks like things might be progressing now with deployment of Nigerian Troops foreshadowed.

Why ECOWAS? proximity perhaps.
Why the US? Perhaps the historical connection in relation to the founding of the country could be a contributing factor.

He hasn't asked France or Germany because they're slated to protest this unilateral action by the US.

Haven't you read the script?