May 03, 2004
BARBARIANS ARE BEST
What was Phillip Adams saying the other day? Something about being right to “back the UN rather than the US”, I think. Former deputy prime minister of Sweden Per Ahlmark might disagree, particularly if any UN-backing involved Kofi Annan:
One might think Annan far too compromised to become secretary-general but the UN doesn't work that way. Instead of being forced to resign after Rwanda and Srebrenica, he was promoted to the post.
That is the culture of the UN: believe the best of barbarians, do nothing to provoke controversy among superiors, and let others be the butt of criticism afterwards. Even subsequent revelations about Annan's responsibility for the disasters in Rwanda and Bosnia did not affect his standing. On the contrary, he was unanimously re-elected and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yay for the UN! Every single bastard who works for it should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
UPDATE. Lots more in the archives. Hit ‘em and scroll.
Posted by Tim Blair at May 3, 2004 05:28 AMBetter yet, stop sending the UN money all together. Then let them form their own country, and show us how things should be done.
Where? Well, the bottom of the oceans are available. Think of it as beachfront property without the beach. And they couldn't get any lower.
Posted by: JeffS at May 3, 2004 at 09:14 AMHow about Antarctica? According to at least one British "scientist" it will be quite livable soon.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 3, 2004 at 09:25 AMWhat, and have someone do a "Rwanda" on the penguins?
On the other hand, those penguins are better organized, and they could do a "Rwanda" on the colonists from the former UN. That would be a good thing.....
Posted by: JeffS at May 3, 2004 at 09:35 AMPer Ahlmark, a sane Swede, one of Sweden’s last. Try to imagine that pompous fartmonger Blix saying anything intelligent like Ahlmark about Annan or the UN.
Posted by: ForNow at May 3, 2004 at 10:03 AMAnd here I'd written off our Swedish pals as hopelessly Socialist, smug and a wee bit schtoopid.
Somebody get a skin scraping of this guy Ahlmark before he dissapears into the fog of Euro-babble.
Before you know it, they'll start trying to pull a Micah Wright and delete his comments from the web.
BARBARIANS ARE BEST
In general, yes, but Conan the Destroyer wasn't nearly as good as Conan the Barbarian.
When I was cleaning up a few months ago, I came across a tape I hadn't used in ages, and suspected it might be unreliable. I was right: it had an episode of The Awful Truth on it. It's been safely recorded over, and now the tape has Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer on it.
(The episode featured painting guns orange.)
Posted by: Andjam at May 3, 2004 at 11:19 AM(The episode featured painting guns orange.)
Whoops, I meant painting non-guns orange.
Posted by: Andjam at May 3, 2004 at 11:24 AMSpeaking of the UN, is the UN guy who allegedly pocketed funds under the "Oil-for-Food" program in Iraq hiding out in Australia?
US blog www.freewillblog.com reports, inter alia, an allegation, that:
"U.N. Assistant Secretary General Benon Sevan, executive director of the oil-for-food program, who received a vouch for 11.5 million barrels of oil through the program, enough to turn a profit as much as $3.5 million.
On US Meet the Press, Kofi Annan was asked:
"So Mr. Sevan, who's being investigated, is telling a company that's also being investigated, "Don't cooperate with government authorities unless you clear it with me." Why is he still involved in the investigation?
SEC'Y-GEN. ANNAN: Right. No, I wasn't aware of this confess for--Benon has worked with the U.N. for several decades, and I will be surprised if he's guilty of these accusations.
(the blog goes on:) Apparently, he's been getting tips from John "Look, Tim, we shouldn't be focusing on facts here," Kerry. An Instapundit reader notes:
This is particularly interesting since Sevan has been on "vacation" since mid-March in Australia, and is supposed to stay on vacation until he retires. . . . Guess it's a working vacation.
It's OK: We can extradite." End Blog transcript.
Is there any way we can find Seyan in Australia? If he works for the UN, he won't be staying in a Caravan Park. Perhaps call the Observatory or the Grand Hyatt.
Old news, Scotty. Check the archives, I think Sevan already left Australia.
Posted by: Sortelli at May 3, 2004 at 04:44 PMI wouldn't be one bit surprise if Annan was secretly relieved when the Americans took action in Iraq. It got the silly U.N. off the hook for 12 years of failure! Can you imagine where the stupid U.N. would be if the Americans had packed up and gone home after resolution 1441 was ignored by Hussein???
Posted by: Brian. at May 3, 2004 at 07:52 PMSevan scuttled back to New York just after the news came out.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 3, 2004 at 08:37 PM