Posted on 09/21/2004 9:10:16 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) took a fresh jab at US President George W. Bush (news - web sites), in a clear sign that world opinion was still far from making peace with the war in Iraq (news - web sites).
Annan opened this year's annual debate of world leaders at the United Nations (news - web sites) by critising Bush's plan to deliver democracy to Iraq through force in a pointed speech aimed at underlining the importance of the rule of law.
"Those who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it, and those who invoke international law must themselves submit to it," Annan said in a speech that drew applause from the presidents and ministers on hand.
"In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood while relief workers, journalists and other non-combatants are taken hostage and put to death in the most barbarous fashion," he said.
"At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused," he said, drawing a parallel between the Iraq bloodshed and the prisoner scandal in a way destined to irk Bush, who was to due to speak after Annan.
Annan has laboured for a year to heal the deep divisions over the war that brought down Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), and his wide-ranging address referred to the catastrophe in Sudan, the Middle East conflict and Russia's hostage tragedy.
But the UN chief, who just last week called the war "illegal," also dropped repeated hints about what he has called Bush's unilateral decision to invade Iraq against the grain of international opinion.
"It is the law, including Security Council resolutions, which offers the best foundation for resolving prolonged conflicts -- in the Middle East, in Iraq and around the world," he said.
"All states -- strong and weak, big and small -- need a framework of fair rules," the UN chief said.
Bush failed to win Security Council backing for the war and, if Annan's criticisms were less blunt than those he offered last year, his position remained at odds with Bush's defence of the war in the fight against terror.
Bush, who was to address the UN General Assembly less than one hour after Annan, has already indicated he will defend the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites) as part of a sweeping global campaign to fight terror in the name of freedom.
"Never in the history of the United Nations have we faced so many opportunities to create a safer world by building a better world," the US president said on Saturday, in a preview of his own address.
"For the sake of our common security, and for the sake of our common values, the international community must rise to this historic moment. And the United States is prepared to lead," Bush said.
too funny,, from the mouth of a clueless idiot , delivered to a mob made up for the most part of reps. for despots, tin-horn dictatorates, and commies.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) (R) and US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) pose for photographers upon their arrival at the United Nations (news - web sites) in New York, on the opening day of the two-week session of the 59th United Nations General Assembly.(AFP/File/Stan Honda)
Time for us to stop allowing the UN to occupy valuable space in NY.
Send them packing, anywhere but here.
Yeah, and before the removal of Saddam it was all rainbows & birthday cake, right?
Annan didn't mention terrorism ONCE. Not once.
The only country Annan condemned? Israel.
Bush's reply: "Oil for food scandal."
What an asswipe.
Isn't their lease up pretty soon or something?
"Annan didn't mention terrorism ONCE. Not once.
The only country Annan condemned? Israel"
Is annan a muslim??
Is he challenging the 2000 election results?
If the leftist MSM ever started really reporting the scandals swirling around the UN, like oil for food and the partying, debauchery of UN observers, Anan would keep his mouth shut. Nothing the US has done even remotely approaches the incompetence and corruption of the UN. Anan's lucky our president is even willing to talk to the UN.
Not a damned thing. Colin Powell is begging for help from Annan, and all he can do is deliver the "threat" of sanctions.
The UN is worthless.
Sunshine, lollipops, you name it.
Annan is trying to shape and influence our presidential election. I hope all Americans see this and it back fires in his face.
Bush's reply should be:
1 - The U.N. was impotent in enforcing the 14 resolutions that Saddam defiantly and repeatedly materially breached. The U.S. merely took the lead in carrying out the UN's obligation to enforce those resolutions.
2 - The ineptness and impotence of the UN could well be the result of the complicitness of certain security council members in the corruption and embezzlement of oil-for-food funds.
3 - The ongoing acts of terrorism, sponsored primarily by non-Iraqi factions who opposed the liberation of Iraq, only underscore the importance of eliminating the pro-Hussein terrorists and the networks that support them.
The liberals who opposed the Iraq embargo claimed that 160,000+ Iraqis a year were dying from lack of food and medicine. Now we find that the UN and its old Europe enablers were starving these people to death through their greed. Where is the outcry???
Instead we are castigated for liberating the country. Even with US bombings, terror attacks etc Iraq is a far safer place to live today. Ask any kid with a full belly.
I wonder if they ever found that Chief's missing head back in Ghana? Did anyone check Kofi's desk?
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