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2003-12-20 Iraq

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Posted by Steve White 2003-12-20 12:50:56 AM|| || Front Page|| [11125 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan tried Friday to persuade President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to send a delegation from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq to a meeting aimed at clarifying the U.N. role in helping rebuild the country.

How about NO U.N. role? Just stay the hell out.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2003-12-20 2:33:39 AM|| 2003-12-20 2:33:39 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 The Bush administration has repeatedly said it wants the world body to play ``a vital roleââ in Iraq

I really wish they would stop saying that. It clearly has Kofi confused. He's obviously not the sharpest knife, you'd think a career beaurocrat would know a kiss off when he gets one.

Posted by Mike 2003-12-20 6:21:55 AM|| 2003-12-20 6:21:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Heh, I think you're both on-target!

Perhaps the UN powers that be finally recognize the train is in motion and it's now or never for them to get their hooks into Iraq. The fact that it has left the station entirely, that the Iraqis either suspect or know the UN was the venue in which the foes of their liberation fought tooth and nail against them and that Saddam had cut numerous inside deals to pilfer and plunder UN programs ostensibly meant to help the people - and this required UN conspirators, and that the UN is a multilateral effort to keep them down and subject to the whims of their Arab neighbors, if not Saddam -- the fact that all of these indictments of the "international community" for complicity and fraud were finally spoken aloud by the new Iraqi FM probably has Kofi & Co's shorts all in a bunch. Indeed, the emperor has no clothes, and the Iraqis are proving difficult because they are crude and simplisme enough to say so.

Too late, numbnuts, the gig is up.

Posted by .com 2003-12-20 6:59:17 AM|| 2003-12-20 6:59:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 I suspect that from the administration's point of view, the UN is already playing the most "vital" role it's going to play in the foreseeable future: staying the hell out of the way.

Bush warned the UN back in September 2002 that it must either step up to the plate or follow the League of Nations into irrelevance. And irrelevant is what it appears to have become.

None too soon, IMO.

Posted by Dave D. 2003-12-20 7:49:34 AM|| 2003-12-20 7:49:34 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 The interim Iraqi FM chewed Kofi and his boys a new ass this past week during a speech at the UN. If Kofi wants to talk about a UN role in Iraq he needs to address the issues raised by the FM. And Kofi, I don't mean by merely saying "now isn't the time to point fingers and to try to place blame". Hey Kofi: For starters open the books to the FM on the "oil for food" program. Let the Iraq FM judge whether you can be trusted to have any role. Your problem, Kofi, is that you ASSUME you can be trusted despite all evidence to the contrary.

Posted by Mark 2003-12-20 8:17:29 AM|| 2003-12-20 8:17:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 I think Kofi's confused. A UN role in Iraq would mean having UN personnel actually in Iraq - but they cut and ran a while back. I doubt they've acquired the balls to go back.

Posted by Spot 2003-12-20 8:40:38 AM|| 2003-12-20 8:40:38 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 The UN role has been played. I believe the role was "soft target."

Posted by Super Hose 2003-12-20 10:23:55 AM|| 2003-12-20 10:23:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 To use a Star Trek illustration. The UN played the role of the guy on the landing party that nobody has seen before wearing the red engineering shirt.

Posted by Super Hose 2003-12-20 11:02:16 AM|| 2003-12-20 11:02:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Here's the deal, Kofi ol' boy: The meet's in Baghdad, and only you are invited, not your ~~cannon fodder~~ subordinates. And you're in charge of your own security. Call us when you make it into town.

Posted by Nero 2003-12-20 12:09:10 PM|| 2003-12-20 12:09:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Mark #5: The version I read had Kofi saying, "Now is not the time to point fingers and place blame over the past." He didn't say anything about pointing fingers and placing blame over the present.

Posted by Glenn (not Reynolds) 2003-12-20 1:57:47 PM|| 2003-12-20 1:57:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 The problem with the U.N. is that they still don't realize that they've lost most, if not all, of their credibility. Hans Blix failed in his mission not because he didn't find any WMD, but because we wouldn't have believed him if he said that they didn't exist.

Kofi has a simiar problem with the Iraqis -- the U.N. is going to have to re-establish their credibility before they're going to be able to play any role.

Posted by snellenr 2003-12-20 2:49:53 PM|| 2003-12-20 2:49:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 The Coalition of the Willing is doing the heavy lifting and getting the job done in Iraq, despite heavy insurgent opposition and ambushes (NYT, alphabet channels, Dem candidates, Rev. Jesse Jackson). Even the Axis of Weasels is slowly coming around. Kofi just does not get it. The world is moving on and he is issuing orders from a ship that has run aground. Maybe his ship will run out of fuel and that will be that. One can hope.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-12-20 3:18:47 PM|| 2003-12-20 3:18:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 I agree with George Bush: the United Nations has a vital role to play in Iraq. Somebody's gotta clear out all those mines, clean up all the mass graves, pick up all the trash, and sweep the streets. THAT is what I'd have the UN do - but only under close supervision. They've already proven they're not self-starters.

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-12-20 3:32:45 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2003-12-20 3:32:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 The "vital role" I had in mind for the UN was running the Starbucks at Baghdad International Airport.

Posted by Christopher Johnson 2003-12-20 5:20:46 PM|| [http://mcj.bloghorn.com/] 2003-12-20 5:20:46 PM|| Front Page Top

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