Whom to back: the United Nations or the BBC? It's one of those Iran/Iraq pity-they-can't-both-lose dilemmas but, on balance, I'm with the Beeb.
The UN has strenuously denied covering up an investigation into the sale of illicit arms by its officials to Congolese rebels. And you can see why its functionaries are so sensitive. I mean, it's one thing to be called useless: sitting around in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami holding press conferences while the Australian and US navies were on site distributing aid that's useless. Running oil-for-fraud boondoggles in Iraq that's useless.
But selling weapons to murderous militiamen: that's in the worse than useless category. Not for the first time, the UN is actively bringing evil into the world. To be sure, it has done more outrageous things in the past, as when it herded Muslim men into Sarajevo, methodically disarmed them and then handed them over to Serb militiamen to be shot, or when it ordered its commanding officer in Rwanda not to seize the arms caches that were about to be used for the genocide. Still, even by UN standards, these are serious allegations.
It's extraordinary how we keep ignoring the actual UN in favour of some theoretical one. However much its bureaucrats engage in fraud, however often its officials are found running smuggling rackets or child prostitution rings, we still maintain that the UN embodies a lofty ideal. And that, of course, is the problem. The automatic benefit of the doubt will, over time, destroy even the most robust institutions.
for more on Daniel Hannan's blog click here
No comments:
Post a Comment