The U.N. is hopeless

The Washington Times ^ | October 11, 2004 | Nat Hentoff

[neverdem]

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The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

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The U.N. is hopeless

By Nat Hentoff
Published October 11, 2004

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    The genocide in Rwanda was over before most of the world knew it was happening. But now that the media is covering the black African victims of the genocide by the government of Sudan and its murderous Arab Janjaweed accomplices, few can claim ignorance of these crimes that do not spare the youngest children. And the United Nations, as usual, folds its hands.

    President Bush at the United Nations, and Secretary of State Colin Powell before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have officially called these horrors genocide. But on Sept. 18, a timorous U.S. resolution -- watered down to prevent China from vetoing it -- was passed by the U.N. Security Council. It said that the Security Council "shall consider" possible oil sanctions on Sudan -- but included not a word about any sanctions on the crimes against humanity by Khartoum's leaders.

    Professor Eric Reeves of Smith College in Massachusetts has spent the past six years documenting atrocities in Khartoum, and after that pitiful Security Council resolution, Mr. Reeves said of Sudan's rulers: "The regime seems to be banking on an eventual drifting of international attention away from the catastrophe in Darfur which will become simply a chronic 'humanitarian problem'."

    They expect that the ongoing killings, rapes, epidemics and starvation in Darfur will fadefromthe American media. In the Sept. 8 New York Sun, columnist Alicia Colon asked: "New Yorkers care about the homeless, animal rights and other causes, but what aboutchildren dying unless it's our own?" The question can be posed...

[OldYank1]

But does it pass the international test????????

[Old Lady]

Ethnic/tribal warfare in Rwanda and other countries in Africa has been going on for decades/centuries. The warfare between the Hutus and the Tutsis is the same old fight between the haves and the have-nots, with race thrown in because the tribes physically differ. How is the UN going to stop this?

[the invisib1e hand]

to see kofi on the monitors declaring that there was no wrongdoing...bwaahahahahahahahahaha!

[Tax-chick]

Translation: It's the United States' responsibility to stop bad things from happening anywhere in the world. Pay up, U.S. taxpayer!

Yes, what's going on in Sudan is horrible. It's been horrible for the last 10-15 years, when Sudanese Moslems were murdering Sudanese Christians and other non-Moslems.

But Hentoff seems to be suggesting that the United States military is the only effective moral force in the world, and therefore it must be thrown in the way of every group of evildoers there is. I'm sure I'm not the only person here who thinks this is nuts.

[gunnygail]

Once again, how do we spell RELIEF?

HR 1146.

Write your Reps/Sens ASAP!

[556x45]

Just to set the record straight...the 'problem' in Rwanda was fixed by a PMC not the UN. Every time the UN intervenes the problem escalates. This has happened several times in Africa in the very recent past - a PMC has bested the UN (a much smaller force and for *much* smaller money). However, the UN condemns them bitterly and seeks to shut them down. Kofi and company would rather have genocide w/ UN control than peace at the hands of other than the UN. In fact, notice that the UN won't call it genocide in their official documents. To do so would require they intervene.

[GOP_1900AD]

Like all other hare brained utopian intellectual schemes, the UN is very bad medicine and should be discarded with no remorse.

[neverdem]

How is the UN going to stop this?

I posted the article because it illustrates irony and hypocrisy.

Irony, in that the title is so accurate, yet the United Nations, despite all the corruption in the Oil for Food Program, still confers any sense of legitimacy.

Hypocrisy, in that followers of Islam, the religion of peace, turn their heads when Muslim Arabs persecute and kill Muslim Africans because of racism.

[unixfox]

[Helms]

"HEY NOW WHATS THAT SOUND, EVERYBODY LOOK WHATS GOING DOWN :" A lot of us have known for some time there was something wrong in the world but it was difficult to pin down and put our fingers on. It was like an itch we could never scratch." We used to call these people "the left," and still do I suppose, but many of those pushing this apparently "left-wing" agenda seem to be high-level statesmen, the wealthy and the heads of multibillion-dollar corporations"- David Carr - coining "Transnational Progressivism" (.pdf - 60 sec. download )

[neverdem]

ping

[headsonpikes]

Wouldn't it be refreshing for a liberal such as Nat Hentoff to be the spokesman for the Democrats.

A campaign between an overt Wilsonian and a Reaganite would offer a pro-American platform from both parties, instead of the present hate-America platform of JF'nK and the rest of the leftist riff-raff.

At least, there would be an airing of real issues regarding America in the world, instead of cynical Democratic smear-jobs and Republican defensiveness.

[Tax-chick]

That's an interesting idea. I think Hentoff's position is wrong, but it's more coherent than anything from John Kerry.

[dfwgator]

How is the UN going to stop this?

In 1994, there were armed UN soldiers. The Hutus had machetes. The UN forces turned tail and ran away without firing a shot. A month later Tutsi rebel forces gained back the country, by then a million Tutsis were slaughtered. I think the UN could have at least set up camps to protect the Tutsis for one month, if nothing else. But this is the UN we're talking about. And Clinton and Albright didn't help matters (it was a mid-term election year don'cha know?)

[headsonpikes]

Hentoff actually believes in the promise of America.

He's a little too ACLU for my tastes, but there is no doubt he knows the difference between liberty and tyranny.

And, he doesn't have to clear his opinions with the French. ;^)

[Publius6961]

The U.N. is hopeless

Water is wet.
The sky is blue
The Pope is Catholic.
Dogs love fire hydrants.
Cats love fish
Dope fries your brain.
Fire hurts.
Gravity is uncompromising.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

??????????????????????????????????

[Celtman]

The U.N. is hopeless

      The UN is simply fulfilling its purpose - just as a large wooden statue of a horse fulfilled its purpose at the city of Troy, long ago.

[spodefly]

See also:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1245067/posts

"The seven organizations, a hodgepodge of "welfare rights" groups and international war protesters, have asked the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for U.N. intervention in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The groups claim that, by funneling their request through ECOSOC, all that's required for U.N. observers to invade the U.S. electoral process next month is the approval of the 54-nation ECOSOC council."

[knighthawk]

No more UN for US-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.