Bolton presides over empty U.N. room

CNN ^ | February 2, 2006

[paudio]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- John Bolton, Washington's U.N. ambassador, tried to open his first meeting as head of the Security Council at 10 a.m. sharp on Thursday -- and was irked to find no other diplomats showed up.

"I brought the gavel down at 10. I was the only one in the room," Bolton said. The United States has just assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council for the month of February.

"I believe in discipline. I think daily briefings constitute a form of intellectual discipline. Starting on time is a form of discipline," Bolton told reporters. "I failed today."

"I took a list of when they (council members) came in," Bolton said. "We started just before 10:15."

[paudio]

What a headline. The title they use on front page actually "U.S.'s man at the U.N. presides over empty room". When I first read the title, I thought there's some 'ordinary' American was to preside over a meeting but nobody wanted to come.

[MinorityRepublican]

Shows you that the UN is worthless.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Defund the UN ASAP. They are worthless offal.EOS.

[GLDNGUN]

LOL. I think this guy the more I see him in action.

[Darkwolf377]

Some ambassadors grumbled they already had too many commitments to attend daily sessions and others suggested perhaps two such briefings a week would suffice. Council members agreed to discuss the idea further on Friday.

If Bolton expects these aholes to actually do some WORK instead of staying out and partying in fine American nightspots, maybe he IS the wrong man for the job. I mean, the guy expects these people to do more than give interviews condemning the US!

[WorkingClassFilth]

What a bunch of petulant idiot children. If I were Bolton, I'd probably enforce discipline by having them all write "I will not be late to the Security Council' 100X on a blackboard. What a wasteland of idiots and criminals.

[Billthedrill]

Oh, Mr. Bolton didn't fail at all. He succeeded in doing precisely what he intended to do, and that is what we put him there to do. My congratulations.

[Constantine XIII]

Awesome.

Bolton ran out of chewing gum a LONG time ago. :)

[Ciexyz]

In many cultures, an exact time to report is merely a suggestion, an approximate time.

[ncountylee]

Some ambassadors grumbled they needed more Lewenski time in the AM.

[TheZMan]

It was said by someone else, but I like this guy the more I hear about him too. Maybe some stern leadership and browbeating will shape things up.

[frankiep]

So no one even bothered to show up. This should be on every news broadcast in the country for the next week along with the question: what the hell is point of even having the UN when its "diplomats" don't even feel it necessary to show up to any meetings?

Of course, the left wing, anti-American, UN loving, media would never do such a thing to embarrass this useless organization.

[Nephi]

Maybe Bolton was in one of the top ten floors?

[LibertarianInExile]

Could he have done what the U.S. did (in Korea) when the Soviets stormed out before, moved that the UN member states provide troops under U.S. leadership to intervene in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran?

[proud_yank]

In many cultures, an exact time to report is merely a suggestion, an approximate time.

Such as:

[mcenedo]

"I took a list of when they (council members) came in," Bolton said. "We started just before 10:15."

Hmmmm, maybe a warning on day one might have sufficed.

[Billthedrill]

ROTFLMAO!

Now I gotta wipe the dang monitor down...

[proud_yank]

Glad you got a laugh Bill! You can actually order that framed, on mugs, magnets, etc at www.despair.com. Funny site!

[Pikachu_Dad]

Am I reading this correctly, they started 15 minutes late?

What is the big deal? That article isn't worth any ink.

[proud_yank]

Fair enough, though I do think that it is a terribly disrespectful thing to do. The fact that noone at all was on time for a scheduled meeting is pretty bad.