Good Riddance, Kofi

Finally, the Kofi Annan era has come to an end.

GOOD RIDDANCE.

While Annan was Secretary General of the United Nations, the organization was steeped in scandal.

The astounding corruption, the human rights abuses, and the shocking incompetence of the UN during Annan's tenure is jaw-dropping.

Read just a little about the human rights abuses, the corruption, and the incompetence of the United Nations and its peacekeepers.

UN Peacekeepers Gun Down Congo Civilians

UN Sexual Predators

Oil-for-Food

Food-for-Sex

Annan, an anti-Semitic, terrorist-appeasing, crook, is in no position to be lecturing anyone; but he does, and he miraculously manages to be respected.

It's nuts.

The New York Times adoringly covers Annan's last address as Secretary General.

Annan bashed Bush and America.

The Times loved it.

Kofi Annan, the departing secretary general of the United Nations, challenged the Bush administration yesterday to shun go-it-alone diplomacy and remain committed to observing human rights as it acts to forestall terrorism.

Human rights???

The United Nations should be challenged to practice what it preaches.

Annan is such a hypocrite.

In a speech delivered at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Mo., billed as his last address to an American audience as secretary general, Mr. Annan said, “You Americans did so much, in the last century, to build an effective multilateral system, with the United Nations at its heart. Do you need it less today, and does it need you less than 60 years ago?”

Mr. Annan did not directly cite the Bush administration, with which he has had a fraught relationship, but he made his rebuke of current American foreign policy clear by urging a return to “far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition.”

...Mr. Annan noted that the United States was “in the vanguard of the global human rights movement,” but said “that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism.”

“When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives,” he added, “its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused.”

This makes me sick.

Oil-for-Food, Food-for-Sex, UN peacekeepers gunning down civilians, etc. -- Annan bashing America for human rights abuses is absurd, given the despicable record of the UN.

...Mr. Annan has often been at odds with the Bush administration, particularly since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 without obtaining a go-ahead from the United Nations.

Having infuriated the Bush administration two years ago by labeling the Iraq war “illegal,” he said that while observing international law could be “inconvenient,” it was essential.

In a clear reference to the lack of international support for the American action in Iraq, he said: “No state can make its own actions legitimate in the eyes of others. When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose — for broadly shared aims — in accordance with broadly accepted norms.”

First, the U.S. doesn't need the UN's blessing to do anything that its officials consider necessary for the good of the country.

Second, why didn't the U.S. get the "go-ahead" from the UN to invade Iraq?

Why did France, Germany, and China hesitate?

They were making billions from the Oil-for-Food program.

The Times fails to mention that. I'm sure that was just an honest mistake.

...He reminded his audience that Mr. Truman had once said, “We all have to recognize, no matter how great our strength, that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please.”

Mr. Annan also cited President Truman’s statement that “the responsibility of great states is to serve and not dominate the peoples of the world,” and noted approvingly how Mr. Truman had used American power to face down a threat to international order during his administration.

“He believed strongly that henceforth security must be collective and indivisible,” Mr. Annan said. “That was why, for instance, that he insisted, when faced with aggression by North Korea against the South in 1950, on bringing the issue to the United Nations and placing U.S. troops under the U.N. flag, at the head of a multinational force.”

Suddenly, Truman is a hero, a great diplomat, a wise peacemaker.

What does Annan think of other decisions made by Truman.

For instance, did Truman consult with other countries before dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

That was a unilateral decision. I think he basically did as he pleased, didn't he?

...Mr. Annan paid his final visit to Washington as secretary general last Tuesday when President Bush gave a dinner in his honor at the White House. One of the guests was John R. Bolton, the American ambassador who had frequently criticized the secretary general and who had announced the day before that he was resigning.

Asked the next morning at the United Nations whether he and Mr. Annan had made peace at the farewell event, Mr. Bolton said, “Nobody sang ‘Kumbaya.’ ” The reference was to a song celebrating fellowship.

Told of Mr. Bolton’s comment, Mr. Annan said, “But does he know how to sing it?”

In its Ode to Annan, The Times just had to take a swipe at Bolton. Bashing Bush wasn't enough I guess.

Bottom line:

Annan was an absolute disaster as Secretary General. He's morally bankrupt, corrupt and anti-Semitic.

The United States does not need the UN's permission to act. We don't need to pass any global tests.

John Bolton is a gifted diplomat and was a tremendous ambassador.

The Dems should be ashamed for forcing him from his position.