Speech by U.N. Leader Draws Angry Response From U.S.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations' No. 2 official accused the U.S. government of keeping Middle America in the dark about the world body's good works, a rare direct criticism that drew an angry response Wednesday from Ambassador John Bolton.

Bolton called Tuesday's speech by Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown a "very, very grave mistake" that could undermine Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts to push through an ambitious agenda at the world body.

"I spoke to the secretary-general this morning, I said 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time,"' Bolton told reporters on Wednesday.

"To have the deputy secretary-general criticize the United States in such a manner can only do grave harm to the United Nations," Bolton said.

In the speech, Malloch Brown said the United States relies on the United Nations as a diplomatic tool but doesn't defend it against criticism at home, a policy of "stealth diplomacy" that he called unsustainable.

He lamented that the good works of the U.N. are largely lost because "much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News."

"The U.N.'s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world," Malloch Brown said.

The speech was delivered at a daylong conference sponsored by two think tanks, the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation. Malloch Brown called it a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer."

It was a rare instance of a senior U.N. official directly and openly criticizing a member state. An unwritten U.N. rule says high-ranking officials don't name names or shame nations.

Yet Malloch Brown and even Annan have done so in the past. Last year, with the U.N. under intense criticism over the Iraq oil for food program, Annan said opponents of the U.N. had been "relentless," and the world body wasn't fighting back enough.

U.S. officials, including Bolton, said they were especially upset that Malloch Brown, a Briton, mentioned "Middle America."

Bolton said Malloch Brown's "condescending, patronizing tone about the American people" was the worst part about the speech.

"Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant," Bolton said. "It's just illegitimate."

The United Nations had no immediate comment about Bolton's remarks or whether Annan would respond.

Malloch Brown used the speech to defend U.N. peacekeeping missions in 18 places round the globe. He criticized the United States for voting against the creation of a new Human Rights Council. It was joined by just three nations, with 170 countries voting for the body.

He acknowledged that the U.N. was in desperate need of an overhaul — in the Security Council, over its budget, and even the headquarters building itself, which hasn't been renovated for decades.

But the U.S. tendency to criticize the United Nations and to take "maximalist positions," rather than seeking the middle ground, has made other nations suspicious of its intentions.

Bolton warned that Malloch Brown's comments could undermine the reforms that Annan wants and that the United States supports.

"To have the deputy secretary-general criticize the United States in such a manner can only do grave harm to the United Nations," Bolton said. "Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations."

http://tinyurl.com/p4bly

Annon and this hack are international civil servants.....social workers. They are not heads of state. Who in the hell do they think they are? What a condescending elitist little hack. The worst scandal in the history of the UN with the oil for food program and this little punk has the nerve to call middle America ignorant. Bolton is right. Their time to go. Get out and put some people in there that can do something right for a change.

The oil for food program should have been monitored a hell of a lot better for all that was at stake, which does show that there was a major oversight on the part of the U.N., but the U.N. is a lot more than just that. It's a group of people from all over the world being given a chance to work together to solve the problems the whole world faces, not just one country looking out for its own best interests.
Poverty, human rights, the environment, international laws, and emergency assistance for victims of war or natural disasters are all the focus of the United Nations and when working within the international community, you are bound to run into problems due to the differences we choose to focus on and often place more importance on than the issues themselves, so it is not always going to be the smooth and easy ride people want.
Ignorance is lack of knowledge or education. You may not like the word, but it simply means unlearned. It is not an insult.
Do you think the average person sits around thinking about the way the world works, how the economies of different countries work, how international trade works, whether someone they've never met who lives in another country is eating today or tomorrow, as they try to keep up the hectic daily schedule of working, paying the bills, watching American Idol and keeping their own lives straight?
I don't think that most people have the time to invest in figuring out just what is going on out there in the big wide world, beyond their own doorstep. Most people are just trying to live, and while there is nothing wrong with that, the truth is most people don't have a real clue. They take the word of the people on the news for what's going on, and while that may (sometimes) give an accurate picture, it is not the whole story and it's a limited view.
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Learn all you can.

Yes indeed. From what I've seen of the American Midwest, they're just now starting to put antennas up on their roofs, and are really diggin' black & white TV!



UN Idiots...

Give me some examples of UN competence and I will give you some examples of UN incompetence. Go for it.

http://www.un.org/works/

This is my understanding of what the U.N. is doing.
(Click on the "people squares" on the page for different topics, such as business, children, etc...).

How many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children starved to death AS A DIRECT RESULT of the United Nations' Oil For Food debacle?


The UN is a farce, a joke and an embarrassment. It should be disbanded immediately.

That's good. You are exactly right. The UN should stick to feeding people and rescuing those in emergencies. They should stay out of trying to dictate foreign policy. The liberals want to let the UN dictate US foreign policy. That is a recipe for disaster. That's like having a child running NASA.

Another ridiculous conservative assumption. As if our foreign policy under Bush has been anything but marginal...

I love how you guys don't give a shit about the UN and call it weak and such, yet when somebody from the UN criticizes America you have to flip out about it. If they are so insignificant, then why do you care so much? Probably because the average conservative can not stand to hear anything negative said about America. Stomping out and avoiding all criticism is not very constructive at all. More importantly, we should be able to handle it for Christ's sakes. Sit down and shut up...