Monday, May 16, 2005
Take That!
Mark Steyn lets the UN and American lawmakers that support it (i.e. the anti-Bolton lot) have it with both barrels in yesterday;s Chicago Sun-Times. (HT: Cheat Seeking Missles)
He starts the piece by laying out some statistics about how much UN sponsored tsunami relief aid has not made it to the places it needs to go. And then describes how Bolton's real problem is that he points issues like this out to people.
He starts the piece by laying out some statistics about how much UN sponsored tsunami relief aid has not made it to the places it needs to go. And then describes how Bolton's real problem is that he points issues like this out to people.
John Bolton's sin is to have spoken the truth about the international system rather than the myths to which photo-oppers like the Canadian prime minister defer. As a consequence, he's being treated like a container of Western aid being processed by Indonesian customs. Customs Inspector Joe Biden and Junior Clerk Voinovich spent two months trying to come up with reasons why Bolton's paperwork is inadequate and demanding to know why he hasn't filled out his RU1-2. An RU1-2 is the official international bureaucrat's form reassuring the global community that he'll continue to peddle all the polite fictions, no matter how self-evidently risible they are. John Bolton isn't one, too. That's why we need him.I think that illustrates a real liberal mindset -- "we don't want to make people feel bad about themselves by pointing out their mistakes." Of course, it's more important that the UN not feel put-upon than it is that they actually do their job!
