U.N. deputy Mark Malloch Brown (in photo) sharply criticized the United States in a speech this week for undermining the United Nations. Rather than seek constructive, middle-ground reforms, U.S. diplomats encourage critics such as Rush Limbaugh to take potshots at the United Nations without any acknowledgment of how much America needs the U.N., he said. “To acknowledge an America reliant on international institutions is not perceived to be good politics at home,” Brown said.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, which previously has praised Brown, wasn’t happy. It responded in an editorial Friday: “We weren’t previously aware that it’s considered appropriate for international civil servants to speak this way about a U.N. member state that pays nearly a quarter of his $287,000 tax-free salary. And we were a little surprised by the absence of any reference in the speech to Oil for Food, sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers, last year’s arrests of two U.N. officials on bribery charges and the suspension earlier this year of eight top U.N. officials allegedly involved in various procurement scams.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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17 Comments
The UN doesn’t need “contructive, middle-ground reforms,” it needs a massive overhaul. It’s a bloated, ineffective, corrupt mess accountable to no one.
But it is a bloated mess that, for all its faults (and they are legion), the US must continue to support and work with and through. Though I have my doubts that the UN has in any way reduced conflict, at the least it provides a conduit through which nations can talk; even nations that have no formal diplomat ties.
And talking is always preferable to shooting.
The UN is incapable of reform and it should be ended, not mended!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Brown is right. Because the U.N. building is on U.S. soil, we seem to think we have the right to run the whole thing. We get to ignore the rules whenever we feel the need or on a whim, and we force other countries to follow them to the letter.
You’re right RD. We need to close down that spies nest and country club and move the entire resort to a deserted island in the North Atlantic with nothing but a landing strip, dormatory and commisary and use the current building as a homeless shelter. Maybe then it can stand for something actually benefical to society.How dare the US host the Temple of International Con Artists, Spies and Two Bit Dictators.
Interesting how we coddle to the UN’s bigotry and still pay dues. No other country would put up with the abuses of it’s laws as we do for the UN. Move the whole group to Sumatra and see what happens.
Just move the UN to the new master and Capitol of the World; Israel.
Then member States could just look out of the their high-rise windows and watch the Palestinians being shot and bulldozed for sport.
Even sell tickets to the artillery shelling of things like that children’s beach-party in Gaza yesterday in order to help pay the bills.
Watching 40 children being killed and wounded ought to bring a premium.
From the rooftop-party you might even see a mushroom cloud rising over Iran, with oil tankers ablaze.
Endless possibilities.
“7 Palestinian civilians killed when IDF shell hits Gaza beach”"By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/724811.html
The UN buiding would be perfect on Easter Island!!
Easter Island? Those stone faces can’t be bribed.
How about asking the question the other way around. Is the UN undermining the US?
Joe, how do you see the UN underminding the US? (An honest question, by the way.)
>>Is U.S. undermining the U.N.?<<
I sure hope so. If not, then I want an explanation from our politicians.
Maybe we could move the U.N. to Haiti and let them try out some of that “We know what is best for you B.S.”
The only reason to have a U.N. is so that countries will always have a place to meet, even if they do not have formal relations. That body has no business authorizing wars, attempting to regulate international trade, or even condemning actions of others.
Anyone that has to ask the question “how is the UN undermining the US?” isnt paying attention.
The U.N. is a political joke. over 80% of it’s “peacekeeping” military forces are American servicemen/women. (who often serve under European commanders by the way!) Financially, America spends more money in foreign aid than it does to pay off it’s national debt. Bottom line is, without the US, the UN is nothing.
Nice postscript here.
Taunted and Jeered – Bolton Bolted – Message Not Well Recieved At Oxford UAmbassodor John Bolton: Either Iran will acquiesce or it will face dire consequences
John Bolton’s message was not well received at Oxford University
by Michael CarmichaelJune 13, 2006GlobalResearch.caTaunted and jeered, Bolton bolted
“John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world.”Senator Jesse Helms (Republican, North Carolina, retired)
Facing an increasingly hostile group of law students in an Oxford seminar that had somehow gone dreadfully wrong, beads of sweat began to pop out on John Bolton’s furrowed brow. Amidst a rising chorus of taunts, jeers, hisses and outright denunciations, Bolton was swiftly surrounded by his entourage of three American security agents and whisked out the door of the seminar room at Oriel College on Friday, the 9th of June.
Pursued by vocal recriminations from angry and frustrated American students who led the incisive questioning and the equally incisive jeering — with taunts like, “You should be doing a better job!” Bolton bolted. He turned sharply on his heel and took flight out the door and then fled down the mediaeval passageway and into the relative safety and calm of his bullet-proof diplomatic limousine, Bolton swiftly headed out of Oxford, rudely foregoing the well-established tradition of lingering to talk with interested members of the audience.
Bolton’s swift exit contrasted sharply with Oxford appearances by two other American politicians earlier this term. Both John Podesta and Richard Perle enjoyed lingering for discussions with Oxford audiences after their talks. John Bolton would have none of it, and the reason was obvious. Throughout the questioning, the audience became increasingly hostile and combative towards his neoconservative agenda.
more at:http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArti...
But this was the best part:
Look how he trys to “trick” the students into admitting they are as self interested as bushbots-
snip>In what was rapidly becoming his interrogation, a woman from America questioned Bolton about the need for a balanced approach where America would represent the best interests of the world at large rather than its own particular regional self-interest.
At that point, Bolton fumbled. In a clumsy and misguided attempt to turn the tables on his adroit and incisive challengers, Bolton threw out a question of his own.
He called for a show of hands of those in the audience who were British. Bolton then asked how many of them wanted the British Ambassador at the UN to represent the interests of Britain. Only one or two hands were raised.
Then he asked to see a show of hands of those British subjects who wanted the British Ambassador at the UN to represent not only the interests of Britain but also the collective interests of the other members as well.
At least a dozen hands went up into the air. Stunned, Bolton was dumbfounded and said rather witlessly,
“I would have gotten a different result in America.”