Kofi Annan And The United Nations

Kofi Annan And The United Nations

By Gabrielle Reilly

Unfortunately, like with many organizations, governments, and countries, corruption and greed eventually slip into the cycle at some point. The investigation into the UN Oil-For-Food Program was far more than a little corruption though, with a staggering figure of over $21 billion embezzled and still counting… funds believed to be used to purchase weapons in Iraq and starve the Iraqi children it was “supposedly” feeding and caring for.

The picture is finally becoming very clear publicly why all the UN sanctions in Iraq were never enforced… corruption. If the sanctions had been enforced and the UN effective, the world could have been sure Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The coalition would never have had to go to war. Thousands of lives would not have been lost. So what needs to done to clean the organization up?

Gabrielle Reilly - Bikini Supermodel, Political Columnist and Celebrity.

First and foremost the United Nations does some great work around the world that the public most often does not hear about. They have skilled people that have helped with complete reconstructions of countries like Sierra Leone that we do not have the time nor necessarily the taxpayers’ dollars to contribute to. So bottom line is, we need the UN, but we don’t need a corrupt UN that is instrumental in causing a war and starving children. Transparency and accountability would be the first place to start.

Transparency and accountability is not what we are getting though as Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, has been trying to withhold critical documents from the investigation, only giving in bit by bit under mounting pressure.

“The Observer has learned that, after initially refusing to publish 55 confidential internal audits, the UN inquiry will now release the potentially damaging material next month. The UN also plans to withdraw its objections to the US Senate's attempts to subpoena several UN contractors for other possibly vital information.” The Guardian

The issue of greatest concern now is that the UN world leader, who is supposed to be a neutral servant of the international community, is taking every opportunity to publicly damage the reputation of America and the coalition. He is taking sides. Is his slanderous media campaign dedicated to removing credibility from the U.S. to protect himself in the public eye from the investigation of both himself and the UN over the corruption? Or is it that he really sided with Saddam? Is he still obstructing the investigation now by not providing all the information? The magnitude of these questions is massive. The fact that we have to ask these questions means there is a tremendous conflict of interest. Kofi Annan needs to step aside so full transparency and accountability can be achieved. The UN needs to be restructured to save the organization from complete demise.

Yes, the right in America is pointedly going after Kofi Annan now. Not because of hurt feelings though as some accuse -- that is water off a duck’s back -- but the grave concern that Annan’s anti-American sentiment is causing more global instability and more terrorists are being recruited as a result of it. More lost life. We seek global stability, which is not a common goal that seems to be shared by the lopsided UN leader. The world leader should be working toward mending bridges, not bringing about a clash of civilizations.

We also recognize human nature. Those who were against the war and against the U.S. may shun all this damaging information and continue to protect Kofi Annan and the UN. Protect the UN, not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is much harder to admit to being wrong when you have built a life around everything riding on backing them; wrong convictions that many on the left have developed a career or social life around whether in politics, journalism, social work, or as anti-war protestors or political activists. Perhaps convictions they have had heated debates about with family and friends… it is really hard to admit that your very premises were wrong and potentially lose much credibility, votes, money, respect, or have less fans that will watch your movies, etc., whatever the implications may be.

The best strategy for the anti-U.S./pro-UN followers would not be to continue to deny the UN corruption and just dig a deeper hole to climb out of. A baby figures out at about eight months that when they shut their eyes and can’t see something doesn’t mean it has gone away. The UN Oil-For-Food scandal is not going to be removed from history and was fundamental to the Iraq war and the funding of terrorism. You can’t shut your eyes and pretend it doesn’t exist.

No, the best strategy for the left would be to come forward with outrage at the level of UN corruption and work to save our world body. That would be the right thing to do and would be the only thing that could regain any lost credibility to an individual or organization that unknowingly supported a corrupt organization. After all, we really understand why the international community would automatically think “UN good, U.S. bad.” That presumption has been preached for decades. It is time to update our thinking because that paradigm has very evidently completely flipped.

So, in light of all the information of the greatest fraud in world history, the UN needs a shake-up urgently. Since it was those at the top of the organization that are implicated, it only makes sense the shake-up starts at the top so we can save the world body. In the best interest of saving the UN, Kofi Annan should step down.

END

GROWTH

One doesn't discover new lands
without consenting to lose sight of the shore
for a very long time.

- Andre Gide

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