Friday, June 09, 2006

Warming up with some UN football

We rest assured:
Mr Blair also ruled out taking the job of UN secretary general after he retires..
Saves 70% of the General Assembly walking out in hysterical laughter.

Meanwhile the US is angry, offended, threatening and doing everything other than providing an intelligent critique of the deputy secretary-general's honest, accurate and reasonable comments:
"Much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," Mr Malloch Brown said in a speech in New York on Tuesday. Depending on the UN while tolerating "too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping" was "simply not sustainable", he said. "You will lose the UN one way or another."
Reasonable and accurate comments. But according to the World Cop's moustachio'd enforcer Mr Malloch made:
a very, very grave mistake..
Hands on revolvers, legs apart, boots in the dust...
this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time...
Really? Criticising the US is the worst they've done? Sound like a very effective organisation then, given their mandate covers war and famine. Bolton dribbles on:
Mr Bolton said the speech demonstrated a "condescending, patronising tone about the American people. Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant. It's just illegitimate."
A civil servant, just to underscore the indignity. Of course the speech did nothing of the sort- it was directed fair square at the US government with a side shot at a few shock jocks, that's a pretty small portion of 250 million people.

Of course, when your attitude towards the global body can be summed up as 'it's my money, so bend over', you don't need to demonstrate reason or restraint. Perhaps Blair will get the last laugh. If Washington wants him, and the UN wants its money, there's sure to be a way around all those pesky member states.

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