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Jewish World Review Sept. 25, 2001 /8 Tishrei, 5762
Michael Ledeen
So it is with the Secretary General of the United Nations,
Kofi Annan. He rules over one of the most corrupt
bureaucracies in the world (it was once explained to me by a
chief of state that he only sent to the U.N. people who would
otherwise cause trouble at home), which regularly issues
defamatory "reports" based largely on rumor (a dear friend of
mine was recently slimed by one of these, which accused the
poor man of diamond smuggling and money laundering),
diverts substantial sums of money to despots, organizes
international conferences to promote anti-Semitism, and takes
advantage of American hospitality while opposing or
sabotaging American policy with monotonous regularity.
We can all be grateful to the New York Times, once known
as the newspaper of record, more recently as the newspaper
of lament, for publishing Kofi Annan's plea to put him in
charge of our war against terrorism on Friday. "This was an
attack on all humanity," he tells us, "an all humanity has a
stake in defeating the forces behind it."
Wrong on all counts. It was an attack against the United
States, and much of humanity cheered it, and some of
humanity has a stake in defeating us, because they support
the forces behind it.
Wrong internally. If there are "forces behind it," then by
definition "all humanity" cannot possibly want them destroyed.
He moves on. "The United Nations is uniquely positioned to
advance this effort." Not hardly, since the U.N. sponsored
the disgusting Durban conference, and Mr. Kofi Annan was
out in front.
He tells us that our response to the terrorists must not
"fracture the unity of Sept. 11," and then he gets to the real
point:
In short, he's fronting for the terror states. We shouldn't target
Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, or any of the others who have made
possible the terror network. We should arrest the terrorists,
and then, thanks to U.N. conventions on extradition, bring
them to trial, leaving Saddam and the others free to recruit
new killers. But Kofi Annan has "higher" callings: We have to
eliminate the "conditions that permit the growth of such
hatred...we must confront violence, bigotry and hatred even
more resolutely. The United Nations' work must continue as
we address the ills of conflict, ignorance, poverty and
disease."
This is right out of the PC hymnal. You can't eliminate
terrorism until and unless you address its "root causes."
Coincidentally, this is precisely what the terrorists say.
Which, I suppose, is just one more bit of evidence for the
unerring wrongheadedness of Mr. Kofi Annan, and we can
thank our lucky stars that the president of the United States
has yet to mention the U.N. in our antiterrorist war.
I hope somebody mentions this to the secretary of
09/21/01: Creative destruction
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