Wall Street Journal Slams UN

As it very well should.

In an editorial at OpinionJournal yesterday:

So now they want in. True, Kofi Annan did have the wit to refute a Kremlin announcement that he would be joining the coalition of the unwilling — France, Germany and Russia — at this weekend's confab in St. Petersburg. Yet even in the face of footage from Baghdad that conjures up images of Paris 1944 or Berlin 1989, we're still asked to believe that an America spilling its blood and treasure to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein has less moral credibility than a U.N. that helped prop him up for 12 years.

That much was made plain earlier this week with Mr. Annan's ex cathedra declaration that only the U.N. possessed the moral imprimatur necessary to confer "legitimacy" on postwar Iraq. But legitimacy is not something that can be imposed by the United Nations — or the United States for that matter. Legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed: the people of Iraq.

It's worth remembering that the U.N. drove itself into this ditch. And the Secretary General bears particular responsibility. Over the years Mr. Annan's willingness to look the other way allowed Saddam to pursue weapons we were assured he didn't have, to continue killing Iraqis who opposed his regime and, as we are now learning, use the U.N.'s oil-for-food program as a vehicle to enrich himself (and fund some of his illicit arms projects) while his people continued to suffer from U.N. sanctions....

(Thanks, Patrick.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 04/12/03 07:26:04 AM
Categorized as International.