Neo-cons jump on anti-UN bandwagon

[CHIMO]

WASHINGTON - Daunted by setbacks in Iraq and the prospective difficulties in achieving "regime change" in Iran and North Korea, neo-conservative hawks have joined the US extreme right in training their sights on a much weaker target, the United Nations, beginning with its secretary general, Kofi Annan.

Jumping on reports that Annan's son remained on the payroll of a Swiss auditing firm hired by the world body to monitor the implementation of the "oil for food" program in Iraq for four years after he left the firm, two prominent neo-conservative voices - New York Times columnist William Safire and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal - called on Monday for the secretary general's resignation.

The two columns immediately were seized on by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News television channel, presumably to draw more attention to the issue. It noted that the New York Sun, another Murdoch-owned media outlet, had broken the story about the US$2,500 monthly payments by Cotecna Inspections to Kojo Annan that followed his departure from the firm five years ago.

The article, which castigates the organization above all for its "overweening animus toward Israel" and "the UN's complicity in legitimizing terrorism", concluded that the threat or use of US military power over the past 60 years has been far more effective at safeguarding "international peace and security" than the Security Council.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FL01Aa01.html

[LakeCohoon]

1. Well, I'm not a NeoCon,

but I have been pulling the anti-UN bandwagon around for quite some time.

(a good idea that has gone bad)

[phantom power]

4. when you say "good idea gone bad", do you mean

we should fix the UN, or replace it with something else?

[LakeCohoon]

6. I Don't Know

I’m certainly not an expert on the United Nations; however, I do know that after WWI, most diplomats felt that something needed to be done to promote international cooperation. They formed the League of Nations. This was another good idea that went bad and they went “out of business” after they were unable to prevent WWII.

Likewise, the United Nations was formed after WWII, and I think it was of great benefit with respect to resolving disputes during the Cold War. However, it has become inept, corrupt and IMHO, a useless organization.

So, I think that it too, needs to go out of business or be completely reorganized. How to do that? I haven’t a clue.

But, I think nothing is better than something as something that cannot be depended upon (something as contemptible as the UN).

[phantom power]

7. I view the UN as similar to the the Articles of the Confederation

The colonies were mistrustful of giving up too much autonomy, and so they made the A.C. a weak central authority. It didn't work, and had to be replaced by a stronger federal government.

I think situation with the UN is analogous. Everybody "wants" some kind of coordinating authority, but not really, because it would require giving up some autonomy. Hence, the arguably ridiculous "veto-power" of all the most powerful nations.

I get the impression that many other UN nations might be ready to commit to greater cooperation at the expense of stronger international authority, but clearly the U.S.A. is becoming *less* willing to cooperate with anybody.

[Demeter]

2. The UN Is Becoming a Credible Threat

WHich hasn't been the case since its inception. But the only reason that the UN is rising in strength is that Bush has destroyed the US politically, economically and militarily.

With China, other Asian nations, the tattered remains of Russia, and the Muslim states ascending together, all of them bent on thrashing the US, they can meet in the UN, and in great comfort and seeming civility, take this once great nation apart. And they want to, make no mistake about that. What went around is now coming back. The NeoCons are way too late, and they wasted their chance on Iraq.

TANSSTAAFL

[phantom power]

3. I was under the impression that neo-cons have always been anti-UN

[d_b]

5. ditto

[indypaul]

8. Neo-cons and Osama bin Laden

according to letter to Mullah Omar from ObL extracted from
Al-Qaeda computer hard drive. See "Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard
Drive" by Alan Cullison, Atlantic Monthly Oct 2004.