U.N. reaches out to win back middle America

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | March 14, 2005 | Audrey Hudson

[Former Military Chick]

The United Nations is out of touch with most Americans, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff.

"In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N. ... and who feel that we've drifted away from a commitment to human rights, a commitment to help the poor of the world," Mark Malloch Brown said yesterday.

The United Nations is under fire for several scandals including the oil-for-food program, charges of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeeping forces and the resignation of a top official accused of sexual harassment, which Mr. Malloch Brown addressed in an exclusive interview with "Fox News Sunday."

The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its "human rights machinery" to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Governments making up the current membership include Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Libya is the outgoing chair of the committee.

The plan would "try and restore the credibility of this and have people on that commission who really are people of stature and reputation and record and come from countries of the same thing, with real human rights standing in the world," Mr. Malloch Brown said.

Human rights groups say rights violators on the commission stick together as a bloc to prevent criticism of one another — a conclusion that has been endorsed by a panel of experts advising Mr. Annan on U.N. reform.

Any changes proposed by Mr. Annan would have to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly, comprising all 191 U.N. member nations.

[CrawDaddyCA]

You forgot to add the 'barf alert' in the title!!

[WKUHilltopper]

For one thing, these UN blood suckers can start by getting out of our national parks!

[clee1]

This UN puke has it all wrong.

Middle America is tired of spending our hard-earned tax dollars on an organization that is totally ineffective at best; and completely corrupt, disfunctional, and actively anti-American at worst.

[jocon307]

"You forgot to add the 'barf alert' in the title!!"

Barf alert? I saw that title and I was SURE it was from scrappleface, and they always fool me.

One thing's for sure, this is a joke, although not funny.

[Billthedrill]

It was no "lack of support" from any government that forced the UN's hands into Saddam's till, it was out-and-out corruption about which nothing is being, or will ever be, done. The UN and its sundry NGO offshoots have priorities so skewed that the U.S. is cursed as oppressive to women for not supporting free abortions worldwide, while women are routinely beaten, shot, stoned, and deprived of the most basic human rights in the Islamic world, which is passed by in silence.

There's nothing much wrong with the UN's ideals and aspirations. It's the organization itself and the individuals in it that stink.

[Atchafalaya]

Buh bye!!!

[hosepipe]

[ "In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N.- Kofi Annan ]

He's delusional.. narcissic.. and totally corrupt...
But hes a nice guy in U.N. terms.. what a pit of vipers..

[hedgetrimmer]

There's nothing much wrong with the UN's ideals and aspirations

I'm pretty sure you're wrong on this one.

An organization founded by communists, with membership composed mainly of socialist, communist and totalitarian dictatorships countries has no redeeming qualities.

[spetznaz]

From the article: The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its "human rights machinery" to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Governments making up the current membership include Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Libya is the outgoing chair of the committee.

No need for anything more to be said!

[John Lenin]

As long as Kofi is still there the US is a JOKE. Get the heck out of my life you idiot gun grabbing moron !

[John Lenin]

As long as Kofi is still there the UN is a JOKE. Get the heck out of my life you idiot gun grabbing moron !

[Billthedrill]

You just cited its membership, which I said stinks. Its aspirations are another matter - check them out. Here's the UN Charter. Contrast these high ideals with the depths to which its members and administrators have fallen. Nothing wrong with promoting human rights, for example, except when the committee contains Cuba, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Libya. Nothing wrong with coordinating international relief efforts, except that the bureaucrats and media darlings charged with doing so didn't even show up in Indonesia until the U.S./Australian/Indian tsunami relief effort was two weeks old and then brought only talk. Nothing wrong with providing troops to stand between combatants, except when those troops turn out to be rapists and pedophiles themselves.

The problem isn't that the UN was evil from the outset, it's that it has been twisted into something it was never intended to be. I don't think it can be twisted back again.

[Centurion2000]

The United Nations is out of touch with most Americans, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world,

That would be because you have Mr Annon

[Rembrandt_fan]

Most of the foreign UN delegates and staff posted in New York come from societies generally ruled by a tiny minority of technocratic elites or oligarchs or whatever, even if there are democratic processes in place. Leading such insular, privileged lives, looking down from such lofty heights at the unwashed masses below, they usually fail to grasp the central fact of the UN's existence: it depends on at least the nominal support of the American middle class. I think the President's reelection brought this truth home.

Their obvious discomfiture tickles me no end.

[Bernard Marx]

An organization founded by communists, with membership composed mainly of socialist, communist and totalitarian dictatorships countries has no redeeming qualities.

The chief American architect of the U.N. was Alger Hiss, Communist, spy and traitor. That's all you need to know about this anti-American, world socialist organization. It's main function is to insert foreign spies into the U.S. under diplomatic cover.

[CBF]

here, here -- then they can get the hell out of the country

[Judith Anne]

This middle American despises everything the UN stands for, resents any tax dollars whatsoever going to those corrupt evil demonic minions, and wants the UN gone from US shores.

Nothing Mr. Annan does, no face lift, no "change" will EVER change that. I despise everything about the UN, including its origins and beginning.

[longtermmemmory]

Translation: The UN is in crisis mode and they are a drowning man grabbing the point of a sword.

If this is their best effort, then the deserve to go the way of the League of Nations.

[FairOpinion]

Mr. Malloch Brown (Kofi Annan's chief of staff) dismissed the congressional criticism and said "most of the world" stands by Mr. Annan and that his resignation would be tantamount to "inappropriate political assassination."

===

This just shows that they think they can con the US into thinking they are reforming the UN, while continuing as they are.

But Bush, Condi and Bolton won't let them get away with it.

I can hardly wait for the "UN RIP" announcement.