United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown delivered a speech yesterday (HT: Hugh Hewitt) attacking the US, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News.
More broadly, Americans complain about the UN’s bureaucracy, weak decision-making, the lack of accountable modern management structures and the political divisions of the General Assembly here in New York. And my response is, “guilty on all counts”.
But why?
In significant part because the US has not stuck with its project -- its professed wish to have a strong, effective United Nations -- in a systematic way. Secretary Albright and others here today have played extraordinary leadership roles in US-UN relations, for which I salute them. But in the eyes of the rest of the world, US commitment tends to ebb much more than it flows. And in recent years, the enormously divisive issue of Iraq and the big stick of financial withholding have come to define an unhappy marriage.
As someone who deals with Washington almost daily, I know this is unfair to the very real effort all three Secretaries of State I have worked with –- Secretary Albright, Secretary Powell and Secretary Rice -– put into UN issues. And today, on a very wide number of areas, from Lebanon and Afghanistan to Syria, Iran and the Palestinian issue, the US is constructively engaged with the UN. But that is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. That is what I mean by “stealth” diplomacy: the UN’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.
Yes, count on the UN to blame America first for its own problems of bureaucracy, weak decision-making, lack of accountability, and political divisions. If the US would only keep their commitments flowing, the UN would... what? Declare they're in a "happy marriage" with the US? Would that fix the political divisions? Would that improve accountability? Hardly.
According to Malloch Brown, the UN is doing important work in a wide number of areas, but Middle America just isn't being informed about the good the UN does. In fact, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are disparaging the UN to Middle America. If it weren't for them, America would be on the UN's side.
Mm-hmm.
Later, he backed down, saying he wasn't attacking Americans, just America's foreign policy. He really likes Fox News. Really.
I'm not convinced. I guess I've been indoctrinated against the UN by Rush Limbaugh, who I never listen to. That must be it. My desire for the removal of the UN from American soil has nothing to do with corruption, rapes of women and children by UN "peace-keepers" and "humanitarian" troops who are supposed to be protecting them, or the constant America-bashing.
Malloch Brown is right about one thing. This is an unhappy marriage, and in this instance, I'm in favor of a divorce.
No comments:
Post a Comment