Annan's failures

The record of the current Secretary-General of the UN is a dubious one, at best. In the last 10 years Annan, in his posts at the UN, had many opportunities to live up to the grand ideals that supposedly are represented by the UN. Yet, in virtually every instance, he and his organization have failed miserably, and in so doing were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. In today's The Australian, criticism comes from an unexpected source, the former deputy Prime Minister of Sweden:

"That is the culture of the UN: believe the best of barbarians, do nothing to provoke controversy among superiors, and let others be the butt of criticism afterwards. Even subsequent revelations about Annan's responsibility for the disasters in Rwanda and Bosnia did not affect his standing. On the contrary, he was unanimously re-elected and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Now, despite revelations about bribery in the UN's oil-for-food program for Iraq, the world is clamouring to entrust Annan with the future of more than 20 million Iraqis who survived Saddam Hussein dictatorship. That is because of who Annan is and what the UN has become: an institution in which no shortcoming, it seems, goes unrewarded."