Kofi Annan in Denial

The UN had the lead in tsunami relief? In the real world - NO. In the world kofi would have you believe in - YES:

When the appalling disaster of the tsunami struck in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 150,000 people and destroying the livelihood of millions, President Bush acted quickly to form a core group of nations with available military forces in the region. That was the right thing to do. It got the relief efforts off to a flying start, which was essential.

But a week later, when all involved came together in Jakarta to plan and coordinate the multinational effort, everyone, including the U.S., agreed that the U.N. should take the lead.

Take the lead in what? Taking credit? Kofi can you name one military group from the US or Australia that agreed to be under UN control?

Unbelieveably - Kofi would also have you believe that all that's good in Iraq today is also the result of his leadership at the UN:

And yet, when the U.S. and its allies wanted an Iraqi body with broad national and international support to help them run the country, they turned to the U.N. and my special representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, for help and advice. He persuaded L. Paul Bremer that it should be a Governing Council, not a mere advisory body, and he persuaded key Iraqi leaders such as Ayatollah Sistani to let their followers join it. Sergio and 21 of his colleagues paid with their lives for their courage and determination to help the Iraqi people--as, alas, do too many brave servants of the U.N. whom the world hears little about.

Last year, when the Coalition wanted to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government, they turned again to the U.N. for help. They knew that if the U.N. were involved in choosing it the new government would have a much better chance of being accepted as legitimate and sovereign.

Both Iraqis and Americans also turned to the U.N. for help in organizing last month's elections. The U.N. helped to draft the electoral law and the law on political parties, to choose and train the members of the independent electoral commission and hundreds of election organizers (who in turn trained thousands of others), and to draw up the voters' lists. It was also there to give advice on the actual conduct of the election, the vote count, and the announcement of the results. Again, we had the necessary expertise--we have organized or helped organize elections in 92 countries, including most recently Afghanistan and Palestine. But even more important was the legitimacy that our involvement brought. The results of an election organized by the Coalition powers, or by Iraqis that they had chosen, would have been less widely accepted in the outside world, and probably in Iraq as well.

His hubris is unbelievable. No mention that the UN cut and ran at the first sign of trouble? Unbelievable.

This is my favorite:

We can give expert advice, if asked, on the drafting of the [Iraqi] constitution. We can reach out to those groups--mainly Sunni Arabs--who stayed away from the elections, for whatever reason, but are willing to pursue their goals through peaceful negotiation and dialogue. And we can bring together the world community in a joint effort to help Iraq rebuild itself and heal the wounds of dictatorship and war.

Emphasis mine. If the UN was so integral in the Iraqi elections and in forming the provisional government - why haven't the Iraqi's come to Kofi Daddy and the UN for more advice? I think we all know the answer.

Kofi says, "I could speak also about the 18 peace operations we have in war-torn countries around the world" as if these are good things but then he says, "Even more shocking are widespread cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of minors by peacekeepers and U.N. officials in the Congo and other African countries." Hey Kofi - don't look now but I think you just did speak about those 18 "peace" operations. Bribery, sexual exploitation and slavery. Yeah - really doing a bang-up job there Kofi.

Read his whole letter in the Wall Street Journal. More than anything - I bet that this bit of hubris helps take down Kofi. He admits to "problems", he admits they happened on his watch and he wants to fix them but now that he's admitted he's part of the problem - look for people to use his own words to show him the door.