"US's military assets worth their weight in gold."--Jan Eggeland

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace ^ | January 2, 2004 | Jan Egeland,

[WmShirerAdmirer]

"U.S.'s military assets worth their weight in gold."--Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. Jan Egeland of the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator is now (9:05 AM EST) being interviewed by Chris Wallace.

[WmShirerAdmirer]

Direct quote! Now Wallace is sticking it to him about fairness of reports of U.S.'s contributions.

[Just mythoughts]

What a bottom feeder.

[marty60]

Is this idiot just figuring this out. The U.N. and some Euros are hopeless.

[Bahbah]

Wallace also points out that the US gives something like 20 times more than others in private donations. Engeland is the perfect UN spokesman, a weasel from start to finish. He maintains the UN is the best organization to deliver aid. In fact, it is in the UN's interest to keep the situation on the ground just as it is. If problems are actually solved, money stops pouring in.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

And in other news, Swiss numbered accounts have risen to over 3 trillion.

[shield]

Anything to MESS WITH AMERICA....What would these goons do without America!!! The world really would be doomed!!!

[Realist05]

I think this guy is regretting the day he learned to pronounce "stingy" in English.

[Wil H]

Well then, lets start with the two aircraft carriers - how much do they weigh and what are they worth at $438.10 an ounce ?

[Clara Lou]

I thought that Wallace was pretty merciless as he interviewed Egelund. It was well-deserved mercilessness.

[tsmith130]

FROM POWERLINEBLOG.COM:

Several months ago, we linked to a new blog by a group of career Foreign Service officers, called Diplomad. Diplomad provides sharp, knowledgeable commentary. It turns out that one of the site's contributors is stationed in one of the countries hit by the tsunami (I don't think he's said which one). His regard for the U.N. disaster relief effort is, shall we say, muted:

Well, we're heading into Day 7 of the Asian quake/tsunami crisis. And the UN relief effort? Nowhere to be seen except at some meetings and on CNN and BBC as talking heads. In this corner of the Far Abroad, it's Yanks and Aussies doing the hard, sweaty work of saving lives.

Check out this interview (on the UN's official website) with SecGen Annan and Under SecGen Egeland shows,

Mr. Egeland: Our main problems now are in northern Sumatra and Aceh. <...> In Aceh, today 50 trucks of relief supplies are arriving. <...> Tomorrow, we will have eight full airplanes arriving. I discussed today with Washington whether we can draw on some assets on their side, after consultations with the Indonesian Government, to set up what we call an “air-freight handling centre” in Aceh.

Tomorrow, we will have to set up a camp for relief workers – 90 of them – which is fully self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging, everything, because they have nowhere to stay and we don't want them to be an additional burden on the people there.

I provided this to some USAID colleagues working in Indonesia and their heads nearly exploded. The first paragraph is quite simply a lie. The UN is taking credit for things that hard-working, street savvy USAID folks have done. It was USAID working with their amazing network of local contacts who scrounged up trucks, drivers, and fuel; organized the convoy and sent it off to deliver critical supplies. A UN “air-freight handling centre” in Aceh? Bull! It's the Aussies and the Yanks who are running the air ops into Aceh. We have people working and sleeping on the tarmac in Aceh, surrounded by bugs, mud, stench and death, who every day bring in the US and Aussie C-130s and the US choppers; unload, load, send them off. We have no fancy aid workers' retreat -- notice the priorities of the UN? People are dying and what's the first thing the UN wants to do? Set up "a camp for relief workers" one that would be "fully self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging, everything." The UN is a sham.

[CFC__VRWC]

Blow it out your ass, Jan. You get no points from me for trying to suck up to us now.

[Bahbah]

Thanks, ts. I saw that and have bookmarked the site.

[Enterprise]

These pinheads still haven't learned not to play Texas Hold 'Em with President Bush. Here's the play by play.

1. Huge Disaster.
2. President Bush pledges 15 Million.
3. Jan Egeland raises, calling it "stingy."
4. President Bush calls, raising it to 35 million.
5. Jan Egeland checks.
6. News of the disaster gets worse.
7. Kofi Annan calls and raises, saying he will visit the area.
9. President Bush goes "all in," sending his brother Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Powell, 350 million dollars in aid, and the U.S. Military.
10. President Bush Wins, and in the process embarrasses Jan Egeland, shows Kofi Annan to be his usual ineffective self, and demonstrates that the United States can do things that one of the biggest players in the region - China - can't even imagine doing.

[Enterprise]

The United Nations is the ultimate office politics butt kisser. Someone does the hard work, the butt kisser takes credit for it.

[NittanyLion]

I also heard this, and I think based on his quote we need to recalculate the US contribution. I'll do the math for one aircraft carrier:

Price of Gold = US$6400 per pound
Weight of USS Abraham Lincoln = 200,000,000 pounds
US Contribution for USS A. Lincoln: $1.28 trillion

I think that makes us the most generous of all countries to donate so far...

[Prospero]

From The Diplomad" "A colleague came back from a meeting held by the local UN representative yesterday and reported that the UN rep had said that while it was a good thing that the Australians and Americans were running the air ops into tsunami-wrecked Aceh, for cultural and political reasons, those Australians and Americans really "should go blue." In other words, they should switch into UN uniforms and give up their national ones."

From The Miracle at Banda Aceh Post.

"Now, if you had told me a week ago that an American Marine expeditionary force would be in Banda Aceh on New Years Day, my first reaction would have been that the President had decided upon a bold and unexpected strike in the War on Terror, jumping ahead on the timeline of that effort's multi-generational strategy. I might have thought it was a bold and necessary move, and I would have believed you if you had said they had located and captured Osama Bin Laden there."

AND "...it's clear the Blue Beanies are shameless in trying to undermine this opportunity to make great gains in the War on Terror because it undermines their PR.

"Thankfully, the President has the Lincoln stationed precisely where it needs to be, and the opinion of "the world" matter less than winning the hearts and minds of the survivors of the former semi-autonimous Aceh terror state." Go Navy!

[marty60]

Yes and the most important thing to the U.N. scumbags is KEEP THAT MONEY FLOWING. To hell with the victims (whether Saddmns or Tsunami)

[5Madman2]

The only thing the UN shows any efficiency at is the "Skim"

[marty60]

BS, I saw picts this AM of our wonderful guys and gals choppering in supplies. What the U.N. can't stand is that American Flag on their uniforms.

[Enterprise]

The military is indeed priceless. Something else "priceless" is our military's unity of command. It is incomparable to the U.N's "unity of whining." And it helps that we have vast warehouses full of "can do."