Retired Marine General Anthony C. Zinni, has recently been promoting a book he co-authored with Tom Clancy. In the course of that promotion, General Zinni has criticized the Bush Administration’s handling of the War in Iraq. Some of his criticisms are reasonable: not enough troops, focusing on the wrong objectives, etc. Maybe he is right, maybe he is wrong, time will tell.

What is curious, however, is his contention that the United Nations should have been more involved in the War in Iraq and should be in charge of Iraq reconstruction.

What? Doesn’t General Zinni read the papers? The UN ran the “Oil for Food Program” that became a colossal bribery scheme which had two significant outcomes: 1) Saddam’s regime got more money for its’ torture-based government; and 2) many high-ranking UN officials got rich on Saddam’s bribes. The prgram should have been called "Oil for Money for Thugs and Crooks."

Although some still have some romantic notion of the UN as a benevolent force for good, it is time to come to grips with reality and realize that the UN is the ultimate bureaucratic institution. The UN works, first and foremost, as a vehicle for enriching the people who work at the UN. When UN officials started to get rich as a result of Saddam being in power, they lost any incentive to force him out.

Our foreign policy (I use this term to mean the combination of our military and diplomatic efforts) should be to benefit the United States and to advance our ideals. We invaded Iraq in order to eliminate a threat to our physical safety and to initiate a process of reform in the Middle East.

The UN has no interest in reforming the Middle East and is only slightly concerned with the physical safety of the United States (UN bureaucrats live in New York after all and wouldn’t want anything to happen to themselves.)

No General Zinni, the UN is not part of the solution – it is part of the problem.
- posted by Thomas @ 10:54 AM