The U.N. becomes a bigger joke

[moeur]

Three examples...

GENEVA -- A U.N. rights panel yesterday demanded the immediate closure of any secret U.S. detention facilities and criticized Washington on a range of other issues -- calling for a moratorium on capital punishment, representation in Congress for the District of Columbia and for improved treatment of poor and black citizens victimized by Hurricane Katrina.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan betrayed his apolitical guise yesterday, as was manifest by his preposterous allegation that an Israeli attack on a U.N. post in southern Lebanon was "apparently deliberate." Mr. Annan knows full well that Israel would never, even if it suited its interests, deliberately attack U.N. personnel or other innocents -- not when the entire world is waiting to unleash its righteous indignation against any perceived "disproportionate" Israeli response to ongoing Hezbollah terror.

The "international community" through the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has done nothing to disarm Hezbollah, though according to U.N. Resolution 1559 it was supposed to. Instead, Hezbollah has been free to militarize southern Lebanon beyond even the imagination of Israeli intelligence agencies.

[mendhak]

And they want to take over ICANN... You just know they have ever unintention of ruining it all.

[demotivater]

UNIFIL is a joke and always has been.

The UN is destined to join the League of Nations.

[FunkyDexter]

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan betrayed his apolitical guise yesterday, as was manifest by his preposterous allegation that an Israeli attack on a U.N. post in southern Lebanon was "apparently deliberate." Mr. Annan knows full well that Israel would never, even if it suited its interests, deliberately attack U.N. personnel or other innocents -- not when the entire world is waiting to unleash its righteous indignation against any perceived "disproportionate" Israeli response to ongoing Hezbollah terror.

Well, it was a big white building with UN in six foot high letter on the side. It had been there for years, always in the same role and the UN workers inside made several phone calls to the Isreali authorites saying 'Please stop bombing us' (I paraphrase, of course) so it does look more than a little suspicious.

It is hard to see what the Israeli's could have hoped to get out of it if it was deliberate though. Some pundits over here have been saying they wanted the UN out of the area so they wouldn't report on troop build ups in advance of a major invasion. I'd have thought that advantage would have been more than offset by the inevitable shortening of the timescales Israel would have to work woithin as the result of the diplomatic fall out.

[DeadEyes]

And its not like they haven't done it before. 1996 they bombed a UN HQ where people were sheltering killing more than a hundred civilians.

[moeur]

I don't think that the UN killings produced as much reaction from the rest of the world as many thought it would.

However a more recent accidental killing of 56 civilians has already brought a temporary halt to the air strikes.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060730/...lebanon_israel

As for whether the UN bombing was deliberate
Messages sent by the Canadian UNIFIL officer killed in the Israel Air Force attack on a UN post in Lebanon last week indicate that Hezbollah had been firing rockets at Israel from a location near the post "on a daily basis" prior to the IAF attack.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/744393.html

[FishGuy]

So the next Blair phone call was to President Chirac. France are the former imperial power, they are in the chair of the Security Council and are expected to lead any international force. The problem is that they say that their troops will only go in once there's a political deal and not a day before. Mr Chirac, unlike Tony Blair, has been willing to criticise Israel and, indeed, his foreign minister has sugested that the carnage in Qana could have been avoided if Britain and the US had followed France's lead.

Typical French, they are never willing to use their Army.

[grilkip]

Typical French, they are never willing to use their Army.

Prove it.

[zaza]

I hereby annex Alsace/Lorraine.
















No complaints so far.

[capsulecorpjx]

Someone should tell the U.N. that resolutions and statements of condemnation don't work.

In fact, except for the WHO branch of the U.N., and maybe as an international forum, the organization is mostly toothless and useless.

[Ex-FB]

The U.N. is a global forum for discussion. I think some people here seem to wish that it was somesort of all powerful war machine that could strike out at countries as it saw fit?

If so, then would they be so happy about the prospect if the UN turned it's weapons on them? I don't think so. What would be their criteria for attacking other countries? Maybe if they are not democracies? But hang on, isn't that enforcing your beliefs on other countries?. Or maybe it should be if they attack other countries first.... oh, hang on, the US and Britain would be up on the firing block for that one in the last few years. Maybe, it should be if they have a poor human rights record... oh, yeah, sorry, forgot about Guantanamo Bay, and various torture centres for the war on terror..., so maybe it's best that it isn't a military police force.

The UN peacekeeping forces are pretty toothless, but remember they are only a small part of the UN. It is first and foremost a forum where the world can sit down. You may call it a waste of time, but it's better than nothing..... maybe if some of the people who keep moaning about it would like to suggest a better alternative, then I'm all ears.

[MasterBlaster]

The UN shoud be disbanded and hand over all global responsibility to VB Forums Chit Chat. Nothing usefull will still be acomplished but at least it will be entertaining. Hell, at the very least, my taxes won't be funding it. Props to the first Kofi Annan smiley!

[capsulecorpjx]

The UN shoud be disbanded and hand over all global responsibility to VB Forums Chit Chat. Nothing usefull will still be acomplished but at least it will be entertaining. Hell, at the very least, my taxes won't be funding it. Props to the first Kofi Annan smiley!

Lets replace the U.N. with Seele. I'll be Chairman Keel.

[demotivater]

Huh? Huh?

[moeur]

The U.N. is a global forum for discussion...

If this were the only thing the UN did then I would have no complaint.

[Arab countries:] The U.S. and Israel are evil and we hate them.
[U.S.] OK, we feel your pain.
[Arabs] Stop torturing our people by putting panties on their heads.
[U.S.] OK, can we ask you to stop flying airlanes into our buildings, sending suicide bombers into Israel, kidnapping and beheading people, firing rockets into Israel communities, planting roadside bombs in Iraq etc. etc.
[Arabs] No, you are the evil satan and we will not rest until you are all either dead or under our control.
[France] And also could you, the evil U.S., let all the innocent Guantanamo prisoners go or at least let them have contact with their brothers in arms? And tell Israel to stop attacking innocent palastinian and lebonese civilians?
[U.S.] No. Anything else?

[Ex-FB]

If this were the only thing the UN did then I would have no complaint.

[Arab countries:] The U.S. and Israel are evil and we hate them.
[U.S.] OK, we feel your pain.
[Arabs] Stop torturing our people by putting panties on their heads.
[U.S.] OK, can we ask you to stop flying airlanes into our buildings, sending suicide bombers into Israel, kidnapping and beheading people, firing rockets into Israel communities, planting roadside bombs in Iraq etc. etc.
[Arabs] No, you are the evil satan and we will not rest until you are all either dead or under our control.
[France] And also could you, the evil U.S., let all the innocent Guantanamo prisoners go or at least let them have contact with their brothers in arms? And tell Israel to stop attacking innocent palastinian and lebonese civilians?
[U.S.] No. Anything else?

Well, I think you have clearly shown what a limited view of the people of the world you have. Maybe I should make it a bit more realistic.

[Arab countries:] The U.S. and Israel are obviously evil and we hate them because they kill our children in Lebanon and Iraq, rape our women, torture and execute our men without trial, and yet hold themselves unaccountable to outside forces and do as they wish.
[U.S.] Isreal has the right to kill all these iinocent people because terrorists started it. Oh yeah, and ditto for ourselves in Iraq, it's obvious that all these Iraqi's were all part of a subversive plot to take over America. Especially that young 13 year old girl we raped and who's family we luckily managed to execute before they could start their evil campaign.
[Arabs] Stop torturing our people, beating them, killing them.
[U.S.] OK, can we ask you to stop flying airlanes into our buildings, sending suicide bombers into Israel, kidnapping and beheading people, firing rockets into Israel communities, planting roadside bombs in Iraq etc. etc.
[Arabs] Mmmm. Strange but you seem to be confusing terrorists with Arabs. Maybe you should start attacking the fundamental christians (like Timothy McVie), or how about the Catholics (like Gerry Adams) - both convicted terrorists.... or does that not fit in with your view of the world?
[France] And also could you, either give the Guantanamo prisoners a fair trial as dictated by the tenents of civilised behaviour or shut up about China etc. holding prisoners without trial..... And tell Israel to stop attacking innocent palastinian and lebonese civilians? [At least you got that bit right].
[U.S.] No. Anything else? I didn't think so. Because we're right, and the rest of the world is wrong. I'm stiking my fingers in my ears now and going la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la so I can't hear any more of your unpatriotic lies.

[moeur]

You almost got it right, just a few modifications:
[Arab countries:] The U.S. and Israel are obviously evil and we hate them because they kill our children in Lebanon and Iraq, rape our women, torture and execute our men without trial, and yet hold themselves unaccountable to outside forces and do as they wish.
(whispers to aid next to him) Did I spew that propaganda correctly?)

[U.S.] Israel has the right to kill all these innocent people because terrorists started it. Oh yeah, and ditto for ourselves in Iraq, it's obvious that all these Iraqi's were all part of a subversive plot to take over America. Especially that young 13 year old girl we raped and who's family we luckily managed to execute before they could start their evil campaign.

-Edit: Error in translation by U.N. translator. The correct text should read.
[U.S.] Israel has the right to defend herself against all forms of violent aggression even if it results in the death of innocent civilians. This is true about our situation in Iraq also, even though we know that all Iraqi's are not all part of a subversive plot to take over America. We especially regret deaths that are the result of intentional misconduct by individual soldiers. The soldiers will be punished to the full extent of the UCMJ. We also realize that incidents like these will be seized upon by our enemies to claim that the U.S. is evil. However we realize that the rest of the world is not stupid enough to fall for that old trick.

[Arabs] Stop torturing our people, beating them, killing them. (to Aide: did I leave anything out?)

[U.S.] OK, can we ask you to stop flying airplanes into our buildings, sending suicide bombers into Israel, kidnapping and beheading people, firing rockets into Israel communities, planting roadside bombs in Iraq etc. etc.

[Arabs] Mmmm. Strange but you seem to be confusing terrorists with Arabs. Maybe you should start attacking the fundamental Christians (like Timothy McVie), or how about the Catholics (like Gerry Adams) - both convicted terrorists.... or does that not fit in with your view of the world?

[U.S.]I assure you we are not confusing peaceful Arabs or peaceful Christians with terrorists. You Arabs are defending the terrorists with words here in the U.N. but we know you would not be foolish enough to overtly take up arms to defend them.

[France] And also could you, either give the Guantanamo prisoners a fair trial as dictated by the tenants of civilised behaviour or shut up about China etc. holding prisoners without trial..... And tell Israel to stop attacking innocent Palestinian and Lebanese civilians? [At least you got that bit right].

[U.S.] If we ever have a security council again we are going to make sure that France is not a permanent member. It is clear they cannot rise above their petty jealousies.

[U.S.] No. Anything else? I didn't think so. Because we're right, and the rest of the world is wrong. I'm sticking my fingers in my ears now and going la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la so I can't hear any more of your unpatriotic lies.

Edit – The last statement was reported by the A.P. but was shown to be another falsehood in a series of falsehoods recently reported by the A.P.

[grilkip]

deja vu anyone?

[Ex-FB]

deja vu anyone?

Hey, he's using French! Stone him as a pacifist

As for mouers post, I rest my case quite happily, thank you.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Hey FB, you haven't been around for a while. Thought maybe you'd changed your name......again.

[Ex-FB]

Hey! Nope, just been busy (also not much internet access in the parts of the world I was in). Will try to visit here while I can (before I get sent off to parts unknown again!).

It's good to be back here though and see that the same petty hatreds and narrow minded intorverted views still exist It gives me a sense of stability!