Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Oust Annan
WSJ.com - Kofi Annan Must Go: "To make matters worse, the actions of Mr. Annan's own son have been called into question. Specifically, the U.N. recently admitted that Kojo Annan received more money than previously disclosed from a Swiss company named Cotecna, which was hired by the U.N. to monitor Iraq's imports under Oil-for-Food. Recently, there are growing, albeit unproven, allegations that Kofi Annan himself not only understands his son's role in this scandal -- but that he has been less than forthcoming in what he knew, and when he knew it."
Not just Senators, but real people too, need to call for Annan to step down. The fact that it has taken this long may, in itself, say something about the kind of power that this position holds. We do not need to exit the U.N. all together, but we certainly need to assist it in cleaning up. In a company, we would expect nearly all of the leadership to step down and a new team to make public all of the ugliness in order to get the organization publically through and then past that phase. By Annan staying on, he is not allowing the organization to heal, which it badly needs to do. If he has committed crimes, he needs to stand up and take it like a man at this point. If these weren't crimes, allowing a dictator to misuse food allotments for his starving people, then it should be. Furthermore, Annan should be ashamed of himself. I realize that often when bad people do bad things, they have become so accustomed to this behavior that it no longer occurs to them how bad it is, but this is bad on a massive scale. His coarse disregard for the Iraqi people makes my stomach turn. Again, shame, shame.
Not just Senators, but real people too, need to call for Annan to step down. The fact that it has taken this long may, in itself, say something about the kind of power that this position holds. We do not need to exit the U.N. all together, but we certainly need to assist it in cleaning up. In a company, we would expect nearly all of the leadership to step down and a new team to make public all of the ugliness in order to get the organization publically through and then past that phase. By Annan staying on, he is not allowing the organization to heal, which it badly needs to do. If he has committed crimes, he needs to stand up and take it like a man at this point. If these weren't crimes, allowing a dictator to misuse food allotments for his starving people, then it should be. Furthermore, Annan should be ashamed of himself. I realize that often when bad people do bad things, they have become so accustomed to this behavior that it no longer occurs to them how bad it is, but this is bad on a massive scale. His coarse disregard for the Iraqi people makes my stomach turn. Again, shame, shame.
