Posted on 06/07/2006 11:08:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
The United States demanded Wednesday that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan repudiate a speech in which his No. 2 official broke with tradition and accused the United States of undermining the United Nations.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called the speech by Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown a "very, very grave mistake" that could undermine Annan's own efforts to push through an ambitious agenda of reform at the world body.
"I spoke to the secretary-general this morning. I said 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time,'" Bolton told reporters.
"To have the deputy secretary-general criticize the United States in such a manner can only do grave harm to the United Nations," Bolton said.
In the speech, delivered Tuesday, Malloch Brown said that the United States relies on the United Nations as a diplomatic tool but does not defend it before critics at home, a policy he called unsustainable.
He lamented that the good works of the U.N. are largely lost because "much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News." The speech was delivered at a daylong conference sponsored by two think tanks, the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation.
It was a rare instance of a senior U.N. official directly and openly criticizing a member state. An unwritten U.N. rule says that high-ranking officials do not name names or shame nations, even among current and former colleagues.
Yet Malloch Brown and even Annan have done it a few times in the past. Last year, with the U.N. under intense criticism over the Iraq oil-for-food program, Annan claimed that U.N. opponents had been "relentless," and the world body wasn't fighting back enough.
U.S. officials including Bolton said they were especially upset that Malloch Brown mentioned "Middle America," which he said was essentially kept ignorant about the U.N. role in the world.
Bolton said Malloch Brown's "condescending, patronizing tone about the American people" was the worst part about the speech.
"Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant," Bolton said. "It's just illegitimate."
John Bolton has got to be the best person we've had at the U.N. in decades
Get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!
Thank goodness we have Bolton in this position.
Bolton for President!
He should demand that the guy resign, forthwith.
Go RUSH !!
The "U.N", and "breasts on a boar hog". They just go together. Why don't we demonstrate to thwe world, and pinheads like Brown what the Un really is, and leave it?
Tough call for the MSM. Cover this in order to make Rush, Fox, and conservatives look bad, or not cover this because even more Americans will get the fact the UN is a bunch of petty assclowns.
Defending the UN is like trying to defend Adolf Hitler. You can try but you'll just look stupid doing it.
Malloch Brown needs to be told that when the U.S. Government starts defending the U.N. to its citizens, those citizens may take up arms and run the U.N. out of the country.
Heck yeah! He doesn't take any of their crap. Its about time somebody faces the UN head-on instead of trying to smooth things over.
Go Bolton!
Not only are the UN bastards unaccountable to anyone, they want to prevent even criticism of them. Go RUSH and FOX! The more they get under their skin, the better.
Would a RINO have appointed him? I think not.
So...a feller who says that the UN gets bad press in the United States goes out of his way to ignore standing protocol and criticizes the U.S. by name? What does he expect for that one, love and kisses?
I like Bolton too, but I'm a little miffed that he singled out Rush and Fox News as the U.N.'s loudest detractors. Tens of thousands of us have been onto the U.N.'s crooked deeds for decades.
I actually think that's true. If "Middle America" REALLY understood the U.N.'s role in the world, they'd be screaming to for our government to immediately withdraw, and evict them from their NYC digs.
"Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant," Bolton said. "It's just illegitimate."
Well, Mr. Bolton, they are ALL illegitimate. You talk a good game - but you're still "playing". Why don't you seize the moment and out this organization?
I have a feeling that Mr. Bolton is just going to participate in this shadow play like they all do... express indignation, demand apologies, scream and shout, bang a shoe on the podium etc. etc., but in the end, when this admin. leaves town Jan '09, the U.N. will still be there, stronger than ever...
I think it means UN officials are starting to come unhinged, thanks in no small part to criticism from the US. He fails to recognize that this kind of statement will only make things worse. He must have forgotten that we aren't some desperate developing country that can be cowed into silence by the UN.
You mean like:
1) the U.N. child-sex operations in Africa
2) the trafficing of women in the former Yugoslavia
3) the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq
4) the continued anti-Semitism of U.N. resolutions
5) the continued attempts to subvert U.S. sovereignty by trying to force gun control via international treaty
6) the resounding success of the U.N. in Somalia
7) the wealth redistribution scheme called Kyoto supported by the politicalized science of the IPCC
Anyone else care to add to the list
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