Kofi's Law
Why the U.N. has no moral standing.
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Monday, September 20, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDTLast we checked, U.N. chief Kofi Annan was promising to help the U.S. rebuild Iraq. But pressed by a BBC interviewer last week, the Secretary-General stated flat out that the liberation of Iraq was "illegal" and a violation of the U.N. Charter. He had already opined that "there should have been a second resolution" authorizing the invasion, and that "I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time."
These thoughts could certainly stand a little parsing. Mr. Annan seems to be saying that the only way force can be used legitimately in the modern world is with the unanimous permission of the U.N. Security Council. So perhaps we should remind him of some recent history.
For example, there was that splendidly legitimate U.N. operation in Bosnia, where its blue-helmeted peacekeepers watched with indifference as Serbian soldiers rounded up for slaughter thousands of Muslim men in the so-called U.N. "safe haven" of Srebrenica. Or Rwanda in 1994, where Mr. Annan--then head of the U.N. peacekeeping office--shrugged off panicked warning calls from the U.N. commander on the ground, thereby allowing the slaughter of 800,000.
And if liberating Iraq was wrong, Mr. Annan must also believe it was wrong for NATO to have intervened in Kosovo, where Russia once again prevented Security Council unanimity. How about the recent French intervention in the Ivory Coast, which the Security Council got around to blessing only after it was a fait accompli? And notwithstanding the latest U.N. promises, what if Gallic and Chinese oil interests block international action in Sudan, allowing the continued attacks on Darfurians? It would appear, on this evidence, that Security Council unanimity isn't exactly the gold standard of legitimacy, much less of morality.
And what's this business about a "second" Iraq resolution? U.N. Resolution 1441 was the 17th resolution demanding that Saddam verifiably disarm, behave with some modicum of respect for the rights of his own citizens, and otherwise comply with conditions of the ceasefire following the end of the 1991 Gulf War. From firing at American planes patrolling the no-fly zones, to widespread sanctions busting, to a banned long-range missile program, the Iraqi dictator was in undeniable breach in March 2003 of the terms under which his regime was spared back in 1991. In other words, there was never any legal need for even Resolution 1441.
This is the same Kofi Annan, by the way, who said after saving Saddam from a U.S. armada in 1998 that "You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done." But in large part thanks to such diplomatic interventions by Mr. Annan on Saddam's behalf, by 2003 the dictator apparently believed that this "force" was always going to be an illusion. He thought he'd slip the noose one more time.
The Secretary-General's latest posturing is far from harmless. The U.N. has been given the lead role in organizing the elections in Iraq scheduled for January. But Mr. Annan's "illegal" comments, which have been replayed across the Arab world, have given an added feeling of legitimacy to every jihadist hoping to disrupt the vote.
His comments also suggest that Mr. Annan belongs in the same category as France and Russia in never intending the "serious consequences" threatened by Resolution 1441. We wonder: Could the corrupt Oil for Food program and all the revenues it generated for the U.N. have anything to do with it?
U.S. illegal claim not Annan's first
by Judi McLeod
Canadafreepress.com
September 20, 2004When UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week told BBC World Service radio that the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was "illegal", it wasn’t the first time. Back in February of 1998, Annan was bandying about the same word.
…"I know that some people on the Hill have a different ideas as to how Iraq and President Saddam Hussein should be handled."
"This is not my concern," Annan said at the time, and he added, "The UN is not in the business of taking out any president. In our organization that is illegal." (Philip Gourevitch, New Yorker Magazine, March 2003).
Diplomatic and even mealy-mouthed when it comes to global terrorism, Annan has long been soft on Iraq and its deposed dictator.
In 1998, before leaving Baghdad, where he had been on a self-styled mission to negotiate with the Butcher of Baghdad, Annan told a reporter that Iraq had been "demonized" by the international community and that the world was as isolated from Iraq as Iraq was from the world.
Having heard from Yassar Arafat that Saddam might be in negotiation mode, Annan was soon on his way to Iraq in a jet put at his disposal by President Jacques Chirac.
Once in Baghdad, Annan and Saddam "smoked cigars together" and "drank orange juice."
While some might have condemned this exercise as one of consorting with the enemy, Annan returned to a hero’s welcome on his return to Paris. The hero’s welcome included a state dinner thrown for Annan by the jet-lending Chirac. Champagne flutes clinked, praising the UN’s head honcho for averting the next world war.
It is customary for Annan to get the VIP treatment in Epicurean delights on Paris stopovers. According to Gourevitch, "on his way back to New York from the Balkans just before Thanksgiving, he stopped in Paris for a lunch of red mullet, squab, cheeses and terrific 12-year-old wines, with Chirac at the Elysee Palace. "They finished off with a mandarin ice, and descended for a brief `press encounter’ in a baroque ballroom, ornately pilastered and gilded, with lots of cherubs in the ceilings."
But back to Annan’s return from the Parisian State dinner, where he was lauded for averting the next world war. On his New York arrival, much of the staff at the United Nations poured out of the building to hail him as a modern-day Caesar.
Annan was not wearing a wreath of laurel, but told the adoring throng that he had not been alone in Baghdad, but surrounded by the world’s prayers.
The first worm in his garden came from the uttered line that has dogged him ever since, when he said of Saddam Hussein, "He’s a man I can do business with."
These were the halcyon days before knowledge of the oil-for-food scandal hit the headlines when the outside world learned that the UN and Annan’s son were "doing business" with Saddam.
When Annan used the word "illegal" in the same sentence as the U.S. just a week ago, it was on the eve of the return of the General Assembly, which convenes in full each fall. The illegal pronouncement also comes weeks in advance of the American presidential election, and ahead of Iraqi elections, earmarked for January 2005.
But Annan says that given the current level of violence and unrest, it is unlikely that Iraq would be able to hold credible elections as planned.
"I think there have been lessons for the U.S. and lessons for the UN and other member states," he said.
If there is one life lesson the high-flying Annan has missed, it’s the lesson of irony.
Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the media. A former Toronto Sun and Kingston Whig Standard columnist, she has also appeared on Newsmax.com, the Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and World Net Daily. Judi can be reached at: cfp@canadafreepress.com.
