Kofi or Not

In the past week there have been a number of calls for Kofi Annan to resign, or be removed from his position, due to his presiding over the Oil-for-Food scam. As would be expected, the calls for his head have come almost entirely from the US, while Europeans and others have written letters of support. Glenn Reynolds has proposed that Vaclav Havel be named to replace Annan in order to restore some legitimacy to the UN. But as Jeff Jacoby sees it, it is irrelevant whether or not Annan resign.

Annan is merely a symptom of the UN's sickness, not the cause of it. His resignation would do nothing to reform the UN into the engine of peace and liberty its founders envisioned. Better that Annan remain in place as a symbol of UN fecklessness and failure, and a spur to those who can envision something better.

The UN is a corrupt institution, one that long ago squandered whatever moral legitimacy it once had. The UN's founding documents venerate justice and human rights, but for the past 40 years, the organization has been dominated by a bloc of states -- essentially the Afro-Asian Third World -- most of whose governments routinely pervert justice and violate human rights.

While it would be great to see Annan humiliated by a forced resignation, I think that it might accomplish the opposite of what it would be intended to do. If Annan resigns, and someone like Havel is put in his place, then without doing anything the UN will regain some measure of legitimacy and respect. Much better to keep Annan in place as a reminder of what a cesspool of corruption and immorality the UN has become. Maybe then the democracies of the world would form their own organization and consign the UN to the ashheap of history where it belongs.

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Look within yourself young Jedi
(a follow up from Elder of Zion #6)

It is human nature to look out for one's own interests. There are those among us who hold a wonderful vision of the member states of the United Nations, evolving to the point where they put the personal interests of their individual regimes aside for the common good of the world body as a whole. However, not unlike the failings of other well meaning concepts such as socialism, the shortcomings of human nature eventually prevail. As much as I sincerely abhor the actions of many at the UN, I understand them. In many cases they are simplistically self-serving. What I don’t understand is the legitimacy and support bestowed upon them by so many, including our own government. My disappointment in the continued passive acceptance of that organization far exceeds that of their actions. The Kofi’s of the world will come and go… the more important change that has to take place is… within us.