David Frum says that the next target in the War on Terror should be the UN itself.
Read the whole thing, but here’s one part that I’d never previously considered:
Behind all of these problems is a larger one: The UN is inherently incompetent to deal with the problem of terrorism. The UN Charter forbids states to use force against other states — which was the UN’s excuse for condemning Israel for bombing Iraq’s French-built nuclear reactor in 1981. But the Charter has nothing to say about the use of force by non-states or quasi-states — which is why the UN kept silent when Hezbollah, with Iranian help, bombed the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing more than 100 people.
Yes, I’d say that at least in terms of global security, the organization has long outlived any usefulness it may have once had.
And I found this little bit here thought provoking:
Some of the oil contracts between Iraq and France are hugely disfavorable to Iraq. Saddam seems to have believed that these special deals would win him France’s political support. A new Iraqi government might want to renegotiate or even cancel these contracts — how would it benefit the Iraqi people for that to be prevented?
If that’s the case, then why shouldn’t these contracts simply be considered odious debt that should be forgiven?
Iraqis are having a hard time dealing with American soldiers’ ethnic diversity.
…Corpsman Benedict Bito, 19, of Alameda, Calif., may have gotten the strangest question while at his post in Numaniyah.
“One kid asked me was I related to (martial artists movie star) Jackie Chan,” said Bito, who is Filipino. “I was standing guard in the square and the people started to stare at me. At first they told me I was Chinese, then they said Korean and finally one guy thought I was Vietnamese.
Iraqis are having a hard time dealing with American soldiers’ ethnic diversity.
…Corpsman Benedict Bito, 19, of Alameda, Calif., may have gotten the strangest question while at his post in Numaniyah.
“One kid asked me was I related to (martial artists movie star) Jackie Chan,” said Bito, who is Filipino. “I was standing guard in the square and the people started to stare at me. At first they told me I was Chinese, then they said Korean and finally one guy thought I was Vietnamese.
Iraqis are having a hard time dealing with American soldiers’ ethnic diversity.
…Corpsman Benedict Bito, 19, of Alameda, Calif., may have gotten the strangest question while at his post in Numaniyah.
“One kid asked me was I related to (martial artists movie star) Jackie Chan,” said Bito, who is Filipino. “I was standing guard in the square and the people started to stare at me. At first they told me I was Chinese, then they said Korean and finally one guy thought I was Vietnamese.
Part of the current conventional wisdom is that the UK (along with the rest of Europe) is becoming increasingly secular, which is one of the reasons that they are appalled by an American president who appears to be a sincere believer in God.
David Carr has an interesting post on how Brits, having been abandoned by their churches, have taken up paganism.
Some of his allies – the Prime Minister of Britain – have overcome their squeamishness to regime change. Some of his opponents – the Prime Minister of Canada – were still objecting to regime change even after the regime had changed. But it was Bush’s position that counted: one of his strengths is that he won’t sacrifice the objective to the process. By contrast, it wasn’t always apparent that his predecessor had objectives: what exactly was the desired end when Mr Clinton bombed that aspirin factory in the Sudan? In foreign policy, Clinton had tactics, not strategy: his inability to reach what the special prosecutor Ken Starr called “completion” extended far beyond Monica’s gullet. On his tax cuts, on missile defence, on Saddam, Bush is completion- focused.
That’s certainly how the UK could interpret the apparent fact that Russia was spying on them and giving the intelligence to Saddam. There’s little doubt, of course, that they were doing the same thing to us. Or that the French were involved as well. What’s truly amazingly stupid about it is that it did him no good whatsoever–Russia (and perhaps France) has sundered its relationship with the Anglosphere for no apparent benefit.