Inhofe: UN peacekeepers teaching girls in Africa to be prostitutes:

[cyberpj]

snip...
During his half-hour speech before the Tulsa Metro Chamber at the Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place, Inhofe called the United Nations an "absolute disaster" whose peacekeepers in Africa have been "going around teaching girls to be prostitutes."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory.asp?ID=060822_Ne_A9_Inhof45679_0

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Is that what they're calling safe sex education now?

[Igel]

7. I assumed he was referring to the persistent

aid-for-sex scandal that's been plaguing the UN troops in Congo.

[Kagemusha]

11. That's the one.

You jogged my memory. That has to be the one; there simply hasn't been a scandal involving UN troops in this manner, of that scale, besides the Congo case. Though, there have been cases of US defense contractors that are VERY similar... but they're not UN troops.

But, the US hasn't deployed to Africa lately. So perhaps for that reason, they didn't involve blacks as a group. Either way, I never heard Inhofe condemning those incidents.

[marmar]

2. Inhofe is an unbelievably sick asshole...

This is the same one who called global warming a "hoax."

[Kagemusha]

3. Wait a minute, he's referring to real, and horrifying, cases.

Now just because they wear blue helmets doesn't mean they suddenly stopped being human. These were third world peacekeepers (possibly from other African nations). I don't recall many details, but certainly there have been publicized cases that are very close to what Inhofe is describing, sick stuff that deserves condemnation in and of itself (without needing to condemn the entire UN for it, which is casting the speck out of another's eye before the log in one's own).

[xchrom]

6. then he's piggy backing wholesale condemnation

for what has been a very good program otherwise -- is what you're saying?

makes it all the more reprehensibile -- since we NEED to change the lives of women and girls -- and teh u.n. as a whole does a remarkably good job at that.

inhofe leaves out the historic good to condemn the whole.

there's no need to defend inhofe.

[Kagemusha]

8. Yes, I'm saying he's piggy backing. Absolutely he is.

It's just unfortunate that some peacekeepers have given him the ammunition required to do so, doing stuff that just cannot be tolerated anywhere, let alone among UN troops.

[xchrom]

9. please don't forget to mention that historically and now --

right now -- the majority of u.n. programs do remarkably great jobs educating and getting women and children what they needed.

that's part and parcel of what inhofe is doing.

subverting history for his own purposes.

[w4rma]

12. Inhofe is doing nothing to fix the problem. He's just attacking the UN

to try to tear down the UN and try to score political points from his hardcore anti-UN base. Not to get the UN to change anything about how things are being handled in the Congo.

You aren't really that naive about how the Republican leadership works are you?

[Hubert Flottz]

16. The GOP will all start to pile on the UN now and try and make it...

"Irrelevant" as they can again, because the UN is going to buck the neocon/PNAC plan to invade Iran.

This guy is just starting to set the stage for the next big attack on the UN by the PNAC!

[Kagemusha]

17. Knowing how the GOP works will not blind me to the crimes of others.

I'm not the kind of person to just ignore rape charges just because the offenders are black and wear blue helmets. Which doesn't make what Inhofe's doing any better.

But in a debate, walking and chewing bubblegum at the same time seems to strike people as illogical and a sign of weakness. I don't claim to grasp the reason why.

[AlamoDemoc]

4. Sen. In-Half and his entire senatorial staff are in in complete dark

when it comes to the United Nations. I will bet money if Sen. in-half or any of his staff ever met anyone from the UN, or can even name anyone from the UN!

[muntrv]

5. Sen. InHalfAss should go become a peacekeeper. He won't last

5 minutes there and he'll be screaming for his mommy.

[KingFlorez]

10. Ragging on his own profession?

The GOP are prostitutes for corporations.

[Joey Liberal]

13. Okies love Inhofe

I need to leave this sick fucking state.

[madokie]

14. a couple days ago he toured one of the local manufacturing plants

and his parting statement was there is no global warming it is all just Al Gore's way to get into the whitehouse and it all can be debunked with facts. Talk about out of tune with the world and us okies have to live with this idiot

[ThomWV]

15. What's To Teach?

I'm curious. Do they teach them to get the money first?

[Kagemusha]

18. No, they say, you do this, this and this or you starve.

And since they control food distribution it's not an idle threat.

Seriously, if anyone wants to defend corrupt UN peacekeepers who've betrayed the trust of the community of nations, I'm happy to embarass you. It's not going to habilitate or rehabilitate Inhofe, nor should it. But thinking that defending scum is a good way to hurt him is completely ignoring the real victims here.

[gratuitous]

19. So the entire UN stands condemned in Inhofe's, er, mind

For the actions of some of its peacekeepers in Africa. Where does he stand on the subject of the United States after . . .

Kama Aido
Abu Ghraib
Haditha
Guantanamo

Oh, you KNOW the list just goes on and on, and this is in just the last five years.

Well, Sen. Inhofe? If the UN deserves wholesale condemnation because of the situation in Africa, how do you feel about the United States? And who should be responsible for U.S. atrocities? You're one of our nation's highest elected officials, and this has happened on your watch. How can you atone for our military's depredations? Are you willing to be measured with the same measure by which you are measuring the UN? If not, why not?