The problem with Annan, for those of us who either dislike or disapprove of him, is not his use of a little diplomacy. It’s his apparent belief in the supremacy of endless diplomacy. In spite of some 17 (or 19, I forget which) resolutions passed against Iraq, he still opposed action by the U.N. and by the United States. In other words, he seems to be a peace-at-any-price proponent…and while there’s nothing wrong with honest and reasonable attempts at diplomacy, there are a lot of things wrong with allowing your words to become empty and the organization you head to become completely impotent…both of which he’s shown himself more than willing to do.
I believe Miller intended to write chauvanism (not, neccessarily of the male sort) which was in fact named after a rather intense Frenchman by the name of Chauvan.
Which isn’t nearly as fun as Marque de Sadism! Those French do come up with some interesting stuff, I’ll give 'em that.
Didn’t you know? The Frog is the natural enemy of the Troll.
“You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.”
- Kofi Annan, February 24th 1998 regarding the use of force to gain compliance from Saddam Hussein
Does anyone have any support for Annan as the uber-pacifist. He opposed the second US invasion of Iraq, certainly, but so did a lot of people.
I think they’re refering to the Oil for Food scandal. I too would be interested in information on this. I watched a Fox special on it several months ago and, while abuses certainly happend, at the time they didn’t seem to have a lot of hard evidence (they used Chalabi as a source!!) for thier larger complaints of bribing security council members or officials in the French gov’t (they showed ledgers that the French did so many billions of dollars with Iraq, but of course that doesn’t really mean anything illegal happend).
Well, as good ol’ Dr. Phil says, “Talk is cheap. Anyone can say anything.”
Actions speak much louder than words, and almost always more accurately. Annan’s actions were to capitulate time after time after time.
The trouble is, despite 12 years of Iraqi malfeasance, he was never willing to deal with Hussein, and he gave absolutely no reliable indication he ever would. Then, once it got to the point we could no longer safely play the waiting game, we had to take action on our own because he wouldn’t back up his own words with force.
:smack:
Just ignore me. I’m dumb.
I’m not sure that the UN secretary general can do much more then talk in these situations. He’s not King of the World, he’s not even King of the UN. He has no armies and can deploy no troops. All he can do is make statements like the one I quoted, to support or not support certain actions and urge other countries to action. In 1998 he supported the US deployment of troops to the Persian Gulf to force Saddam to allow inspectors to reenter his country.
Yes, you are right that his authority is limited. But he continually spoke and used his influence in such a way as to try to avoid taking substantive action to force Hussein’s hand, and to thwart U.S. efforts to get the U.N. to take substantive action.
(many apologies to Leslie Bricusse)
If we could talk to our enemies, just imagine it
Chatting to a rock in Iraqi
Imagine talking to a Tamil, chatting to all China
What a neat achievement that would be
If we could talk to our enemies, learn their languages
Maybe take an enemy degree
We’d study Libyan and Spanish, Hindi and Iranish
Abenaki, German, French, and Cree
(did I mention apologies?)
I’m fed up with France bashing and defamation against the french character!!! :mad:
Well, gee, and didn´t all those resolutions work?, I mean, Iraq didn´t have WMD and was not a threat to it´s neightbours, the stuff the UN resolutions addressed. What else did you expected?
They didn’t. The Ivorian airforce has attacked french positions on the separation line, killing eight soldiers and wounding twenty or so others today. As a result, the ministry of defense has allowed french troops to use force and to shot down Ivorian aircrafts, which they did. There has been also fights in the Ivorian’s capital airport. The french high school in Abidjan has also been burned to the ground by pro-governmental rioters, and there are talks about evacuating the western expatriates.
Ya, I have been following what is going on, and that is sort of what I am alluding to. I should have said something along the lines of, ‘I hope that there will be no further casualites among the French soldiers’. Nasty situation over there, to be sure.
By the way, I’ve a huge respect for Kofi Annan. I, for one, would give him my vote for this job of “king of the world” someone mentionned.
Or as king of France. We didn’t have one for quite a long time, now…
Wait a minute! Does it mean that ‘foreigners’ can’t post in this message board? I so want my money back!
I am here banging my head on the wall, reminding myself that not all Americans are like this. I am sure they are not. Sure these Americans are mostly ignorants of what they have done to other countries (I am going to start using “1916. 1965” as a signature). Of course, very few Americans know what I am referring to, how could they know. How could they know that September 11 means something entirely different to over 14 million people. Do they know?
It is just so easy to go about stupid stereotypes while a great chunk of the world is tryign not to fall prey of stereotypes of chauvinistic, stupid Americans. I will not.
The French and Germans are cowards? The irony. The fucking irony.
Well you do have this nasty habit of putting them through the guillotine…
Not that it wouldn’t do Annan some good
Redfury, as you should know from his name, is a communist. Every link he posts is a commie link. Check them yourself. If you’re going to be partisan, fine, but you should quote your material from a nonpartisan site (not a commie one.)
Rune, watch out for wishing death on someone (like Koffi Annan.)
Yes, because nothing we do affects any other country. How’s that massive bubble you’re erecting around the borders working out? I imagine Canada doesn’t have to breathe air anymore, right? :rolleyes:
Which only confirms what I already knew: that you’re a better person than I. Because for the past four years, you have no idea of how many times I’ve had to remind myself over and over and over again that “they didn’t choose him, he lost the popular vote, he was appointed.”
No more. There are at least 59,000,000 Americans that are every bit as stupid and chauvinistic as charged. And what’s worse, their chosen leader not only fits the stereotype to a ‘T’, but acts in that very fashion.
As evidence, just take a look at what the SDMB has become in the past four days. There’s so much jingoism, xenophobia and bigotry, that it radiates right through my monitor.
Who’s to blame? You tell me.