Posted on 10/11/2004 1:39:20 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
BEIJING - The United Nations must show it is tough enough to ensure the security of its members so that individual countries do not take measures into their own hands, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday.
Speaking to Chinese university students in Beijing, Annan said fighting terrorism was best achieved through cooperation and information-sharing between states, not the use of force.
“Indeed, the first purpose of the United Nations, laid down in Article 1 of the Charter, is ’to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace’,” Annan said.
“We must show that the United Nations is capable of fulfilling that purpose, so that states do not feel obliged or entitled to take the law into their own hands.”
US President George W. Bush questioned the relevance of the United Nations before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying Baghdad had flaunted UN authority for a decade.
The United States and Britain withdrew a draft resolution on an invasion in the council in mid-March after it was clear there were not enough votes. France had threatened to veto if UN inspectors were not given more time to account for Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.
In remarks at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Annan stopped short of repeating comments from an interview in September in which he said the 15-member Security Council should have approved the invasion of Iraq in mid-March 2003.
The Bush administration has said it reserves the right to make pre-emptive attacks to ensure US national security.
Annan said others felt that doctrine was “a grave threat to international peace and security, since it might imply that any state has the right to use force whenever it sees fit, without regard to other states’ concerns.
“That is precisely the state of affairs which the United Nations was created to save humanity from,” he said.
He said the best way to stop terrorism was by better cooperation and communication between countries “to ensure that terrorists are not given safe havens in their territories; to ensure that they are not given financial support; to ensure that they do not move around as freely as they used to.”
“Yes, some countries have used force to deal with terrorism, but I see that as not the most essential part of fighting international terrorism,” Annan said.
This is what Kerry wants to hand us over to.
Buwahahahahahahah!!! The UN as a force to ensure national security! The UN's intent was to provide a forum for nations to multilaterlly hold in check and/or defeat the forces of tyranny, despotism, and aggression. Not fund them via the Oil for Food program.
Because he can't make any money off of it that way...
Great Koffi - you put together your UN forces to stop us in Iraq - POS - would love to have you leading the troops in the frontline to prevent us from protecting ourselves, incompetent crooked @$$hole!!!
Kofi will prevent terrorism by taking bribes from the terrorists.
"preempt preemptive strikes "
Wheel within a wheel, man....
F Kofi Annan! The U.N. has been totally disgraced!
GET US OUT OF THE U.N. NOW!
Also the hand wringing over S. Sudan is symptomatic of uselessness.
Oh yeah? What's the U.N. gonna to do the U.S? They need to get out of our country. I bet they would feel at home in Paris with Chirac.
Yeah, right. Like the U.N. did squat to stop terrorist-supporting regimes like Iraq or Afghanistan. Hell, the U.N. was in bed with Saddam Hussein all along and now Annan has the audacity to propose this ridiculous measure?
Criminy...when are we going to get the U.S. out of the U.N. and vice-versa??
Not at all. It's a subset of the mission that the UN has utterly failed to perform at every opportunity. Not to say anything bad about the UN, but the UN structure was created imperfectly based on a fallacious idea.
Yup, Kofi, that kind of proves that the UN is a dismal failure, doesn't it???
The UN was and is a bad idea. It is trying to say that it has power over all sovereign countries. That individual countries have to ask approval to protect themselves. This is ridiculous. No world body or other country should usurp our rights to protect ourselves. I say get out of the UN as fast as we can.
The UN has shown itself utterly incapable of doing anything at all about terrorism or the states that sponsor terrorist organizations. So instead it will undertake the task of trying to hamstring any state that dares strike these murderous savages in an effort to forestall their savagery.
Actually I am not entirely correct in my assessment of the UN. What I should have written is that the UN is incapable of taking action that would prevent terrorists from killing and destroying. The UN has shown itself quite capable of taking bribes and kickbacks from terror sponsors in their efforts to stay in business. And the UN has done its level best to rein in the Israelis and thus give the terrorist scum that surrounds them more opportunity to kill Jews.
Oooh we're frightened of you and your paper-tiger run-for-the-hills army Koffi. Go seduce a goat.
/sarcasm
Hey Cokie; don't sing it, bring it.
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