Tuesday, February 01, 2005
UN: - "Toothless Tiger"
I relaxed last night and watched a tremendous documentary last night on CBC-TV's "The Passionate Eye". The doc is called "Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey Of Romeo Dallaire", and will be repeated Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 10pm ET on CBC-TV's Newsworld. I had previously seen another doc on Gen. Dallaire and Rwanda called "The Last Just Man", and enjoyed it extremely. Then, this morning after I awakened, I was startled to see this headline: "UN Clears Sudan Of Genocide In Darfur". Something is seriously wrong here. Is Rwanda forgotten already? What about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia? Here is the UN's own genocide definition.
General Dallaire is Canadian and was sent to Rwanda as the head of the UN peace-keeping mission. Slowly the situation in country deteriorated, and Gen. Dallaire was denied any request he made for additional troops and arms. The authority to seize Hutu arms caches was also denied, and Gen. Dallaire says this could have prevented a lot of the bloodshed. The UN ordered him to withdraw, he refused, as he had civilians under his protection. Genocide ensued, and 800,000 people were shot, beaten, and hacked to death.
Today, Gen. Dallaire is slowly coming to terms with the anguish and guilt he has shared his body with for a decade. He speaks publicly and bluntly about what went wrong and why and challenges audiences with questions regarding command decisions that are unanswerable. Gen. Dallaire clearly got the shaft from the UN and will suffer and second-guess himself until his passing.
All I want to say is, let's take another look at the UN. It is a tremendous money-pit and has little authority. Kofi Annan is well-spoken, buy accomplishes little. The money the US alone spends on the UN would provide a tremendous amount of food, medicine, books, clothes, irrigation systems, etc., etc., and could really help impoverished people, instead of being consumed by the obese bureaucracy called the UN. Maybe it is time for a North American or European leader at the UN. Some sort of change is needed. Remember, the current leadership installed Libya as head of the "UN Human Rights Commission". Unbelievable!!!
General Dallaire is Canadian and was sent to Rwanda as the head of the UN peace-keeping mission. Slowly the situation in country deteriorated, and Gen. Dallaire was denied any request he made for additional troops and arms. The authority to seize Hutu arms caches was also denied, and Gen. Dallaire says this could have prevented a lot of the bloodshed. The UN ordered him to withdraw, he refused, as he had civilians under his protection. Genocide ensued, and 800,000 people were shot, beaten, and hacked to death.
Today, Gen. Dallaire is slowly coming to terms with the anguish and guilt he has shared his body with for a decade. He speaks publicly and bluntly about what went wrong and why and challenges audiences with questions regarding command decisions that are unanswerable. Gen. Dallaire clearly got the shaft from the UN and will suffer and second-guess himself until his passing.
All I want to say is, let's take another look at the UN. It is a tremendous money-pit and has little authority. Kofi Annan is well-spoken, buy accomplishes little. The money the US alone spends on the UN would provide a tremendous amount of food, medicine, books, clothes, irrigation systems, etc., etc., and could really help impoverished people, instead of being consumed by the obese bureaucracy called the UN. Maybe it is time for a North American or European leader at the UN. Some sort of change is needed. Remember, the current leadership installed Libya as head of the "UN Human Rights Commission". Unbelievable!!!
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Yes, the UN is basically the cosmetic facade of an organization that has been infiltrated by murderers and henchmen. It should have had lofty beginnings as the League of Nations, which was also totally ineffective, just as the UN, it's offspring, is today. It pains me that an organization as such cannot do what is right and say "no" to murderous dictators, and then say "or else". Also, when a resolution date is broken, that is it! No "ifs", "ands", or "buts"! Show the despots the UN means business. Screw around, we pound you. Show compassion and humanity, we'll be at your door with hunanitarian aid and investors. So simple. So much of the politics in 2nd and 3rd world countries revolves around the prosperity and comfort of the dictator or paper government head, and neglects the people. It has to change, and it might be painful short-term, but it will. I wonder how much Kofi Annan's son made from the Iraqi oil-for-food program?
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