Tag: United Nations

Closing Thought–06Oct17

The year is 1961 and a recent Nightly News broadcast has told the world that the Sec. General of the Untied Nations, Dag Hammarskjold has been killed in a plane crash in Africa.

I bring this up because it is one of my first memories of me be interested in what is happen on the international stage….I recall that there was a wealth of speculation swirling around the crash…..was it shot down?  Was it engine trouble?  Was it a direct attack on the plane?

To this today there are still questions being asked with few good answers…..

Conspiracy theories claiming the 1961 plane crash that killed UN chief Dag Hammarskjold was orchestrated by the US government and its allies have been circulating for years—and may have just gained some weight. A fresh investigation into the Swedish diplomat’s death has uncovered a “significant amount of evidence” that his Douglas DC-6 plane was brought down by another aircraft while on a peace mission in Africa, according to a UN report seen by the Guardian. The report—based on undisclosed data provided by the US, UK, Belgium, Canada, and Germany—adds that both the US and UK had spies or surveillance aircraft near Ndola, in what is now Zambia, and intercepted radio traffic at the time the plane was brought down near Ndola’s airport.

Both the US and UK should therefore have evidence that, if presented, could solve the 56-year-old mystery, former Tanzanian chief justice Mohamed Chande Othman writes in the report. He notes the appointment of independent officials to search US and UK archives “is a step that must be taken before this matter … may rest.” But based on the evidence compiled so far—including witness accounts describing other aircraft in the area and flames coming from Hammarskjold’s plane before impact—”it appears plausible that external attack or threat may have been a cause of the crash,” Othman concludes. He also notes evidence may back up the theory that a Belgian pilot working for rebels in the area mistakenly hit the plane with a warning shot meant to keep the plane from landing.

Like I said….this incident is what lead me down my path of international relations and study…..

Donald’s First Time (19Sep17 UN Speech)

Yesterday our president gave the first big speech of his young administration…..his offering to the United Nations.

It was an amateurish speech at best….beyond that…it was God awful…..even dismal.  Okay I will admit that there were a few points that were good and to the point but the rest was for his supporters….a virtual campaign speech.

Personally, I was not looking for anything earth shattering but as usual I was mistaken…..he stood before the world and threatened war against another member of the body.

The North’s nuclear arsenal threatens the “entire world,” he said, and if Pyongyang attacks the US or an ally, “we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” he said.

That is a scary moment……that an American president would make such a threat to the world.

His speech progressed and it did not get any better….the more he talked the more foot was inserted into his mouth.

On Tuesday, in his first speech in front of the UN General Assembly, President Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and its “rocket man” Kim Jong Un. That, understandably, got people talking. The Hill reports ABC’s chief foreign correspondent accused trump of using “WWE rhetoric” to lob an “immoral threat” in front of the world’s political leaders. Terry Moran says mulling the destruction of a country of 25 million people “borders on the threat of committing a war crime.” Here’s how others are reacting to Trump’s speech:

  • Former UN ambassador John Bolton not only calls it the “best speech of the Trump presidency” but says it was unparalleled in the history of the UN, congratulating Trump on saying things that needed to be said, Fox News reports.
  • USA Today has five takeaways from the speech, which include Trump calling terrorists “losers,” Iran a “rogue nation,” and Venezuela a “responsible neighbor and friend.”
  • While the North Korean ambassador to the UN walked out before Trump’s speech, a former CIA analyst and expert on North Korea tells the Los Angeles Times how it’s likely to play there: “If I were Kim Jong Un, I’d think, I better accelerate this thing and finish building my nuclear weapon before it’s too late. These threats will only increase the hysteria and paranoia in North Korea.”
  • Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron took issue with Trump’s stance on the Iran nuclear deal, calling the deal “essential for peace” and saying scrapping it would be a “grave error,” the New York Times reports. Macron also “rejects escalation” when it comes to North Korea.
  • In its look at the phrases Trump used that “matter most,” CNN notes the president used “sovereign” or “sovereignty” 21 times. By doing so, Trump made it clear that America is looking out for itself first and foremost.
  • Writing for the Washington Post, Ed Rogers says he was pleasantly surprised by Trump, who showed an “unusual grasp of realism and relatively remarkable restraint.” The former employee of the Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush White Houses says Trump playing nice with the UN is a possible result of Stephen Bannon leaving the administration.
  • Finally, Vanity Fair calls Trump’s speech “maniacal” and “warlike” and one that despite all the president’s bluster and bragging “left him looking small” in front of the international community.

Sorry but using derogatory titles like “Rocket Man” or “Losers” is beneath the dignity of the office of president of the United States.

I know I can be a bit harsh and If you would rather watch the speech or read the transcript then the below link is what you are looking for…..then you decide what was said.

Source: UNGA 2017: Donald Trump full video and transcript at United Nations General Assembly

And the world reacts to the speech……

  • “Trump’s ignorant hate speech belongs in medieval times-not the 21st Century UN,” tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. “Fake empathy for Iranians fools no one.”
  • Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was not present for the speech, called Trump “the new Hitler,” the Independent reports. Earlier, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza responded to Trump’s call for democracy to be restored in the country by saying: “No leader can come and question our democracy, can come and question our sovereignty.”
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the speech a better review. “In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech,” he said.
  • Trump, who warned that the US would “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary, was also applauded by South Korea, the AP reports. Trump set out a “firm and specific stance regarding the important issue of maintaining peace and security now facing the international community and the United Nations,” said a spokesman for the country’s presidential office.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom tells the BBC: “It was the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience.” “This was a bombastic, nationalist speech,” she says. “It must have been decades since one last heard a speech like that in the UN General Assembly.”

Senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said Trump painted Syria, Cuba, and Venezuela as “almost the worst dictatorships in the history of the humankind.” He said that in the “contradictory” speech, Trump expressed support for nations’ sovereign rights but mixed it with a “barefaced US pretense to determine who has such rights and who does not,” the AP reports.

Everybody’s a critic, huh?

This speech leads NO credence to the claim that Trump is a “master negotiator”….nothing masterful was uttered.

Trump’s Big Day

President Trump will be making his first ever speech o the UN general Counsel…during the campaign was not kind to the group….but I expect a more laid back speech this time….but one never knows when Trump will hit the pause button and go off on one of his babbling diatribes…..

Pres. Trump will have a busy week with all the UN stuff…..

President Trump attends his first session of the UN General Assembly this week, with his big speech scheduled for Tuesday. In addition to that, however, he’s got a packed week of meetings with fellow world leaders, a format that one analyst compares to “speed dating from hell,” via CNN. Aides have previewed some of the big topics Trump is expected to hit, with North Korea, Iran’s nuclear program, global terrorism, the Venezuelan economic meltdown, and UN reform among them. But much of the advance focus is on how Trump will interact with his fellow leaders in front of an organization he has previously belittled. UN ambassador Nikki Haley offered a preview on Sunday: “I personally think he slaps the right people, he hugs the right people, and he comes out with the US being very strong in the end,” she said in regard to his Tuesday speech, per the New York Times.

Some highlights: (Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and Germany’s Angela Merkel are not expected to attend, notes USA Today):

  • Monday: Trumps meets with the leaders of France and Israel, with Iran expected to be a big focus, reports the Hill. He also hosts a dinner with Latin American leaders, at which Venezuela is likely to be the No. 1 topic.
  • Tuesday: Trump delivers his speech to the General Assembly, his first as president to the full body.
  • Wednesday: Trump meets with the leaders of Britain, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority, and hosts a lunch with leaders from Africa.
  • Thursday: In addition to meetings with the leaders of Turkey, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, he hosts a lunch with the leaders of South Korea and Japan. The latter could be key in determining what comes next in regard to North Korea.
  • Key quote: “The world is still trying to take the measure of this president,” says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “For a number of leaders, this is going to be their first chance to see him, to judge him, to try to get on his good side. … They will have been preparing for a chance encounter for weeks.”

The one thing I found interesting is the 3 or the 5 members of the UNSC will not be there…..Chija will be missing as well as Russia and Germany…..3 of the most powerful countries of the world…is that saying something?

She Made Me Proud Again

Saturday and rain…..and a visit from my granddaughter….she has been very busy with the start of school and her band commitments…but today she is coming by for we need to talk about something she is thinking about doing…..another activity.

She knows that I am a foreign policy wonk and do a lot of international analyses…..she is thinking about joining the Model United Nations Program…..and she wanted my input.

In Model United Nations, students step into the shoes of ambassadors from U.N. member states to debate current issues on the organization’s vast agenda. Student “delegates” in Model United Nations prepare draft resolutions, plot strategy, negotiate with supporters and adversaries, resolve conflicts, and intensely navigate the United Nations rules of procedures, as applied in the respective United Nations bodies, all in the interest of mobilizing “international cooperation” to resolve problems that affect almost every country on Earth. All MUN delegates have to obey these Rules of Procedure, which are a simplified version of those used in the real United Nations conferences. The sessions of the committees will be led by Chairs and Co-Chairs.

Before playing out their ambassadorial roles in Model United Nations, students research global problems to be addressed, drawn from today’s headlines. Model United Nations participants learn how the international community acts on its concerns about topics including peace and security, human rights, the environment, food and hunger, economic development, and globalization. Model United Nations delegates also look closely at the needs, aspirations, and foreign policy of the countries they will represent at the event. In almost all the Model United Nations around the world today, it is a common practice that students (delegates) are not allowed to represent their own countries of origin.

She wants to get the heads up from the old fart…..

I told her that here was also an on-line version of the Model United Nations that she might like to check it out first to get the feel of things that would be expected of her……

Source: Home | Online Model United Nations

What can I say….she NEVER ceases to amaze me.  If all goes well she may well be writing for IST in the future.

Another opinionated chuq….she is already opinionated all she needs is a good solid foundation……I could not ask for more.

That’s my girl!

Is The UN Ineffective?

Of course it is….but there is a reason why it seems ineffective.

I know that there will be those that will condemn the UN for everything it attempts…..these are the people that fear the “New World Order”…..they fear the UN because they are told to fear them.

The United Nations….its first incarnation was the League Of Nations…..a post World War 1 attempt to bring the world together and prevent the barbarity of war.  It was the brain child of American president Woodrow Wilson…it failed in its prime purpose the prevention of war…..for 20 years after the attempt the world descended into World War 2.

After the last world war another attempt was made to help the world to try and avoid another World War….it was now called the United Nations.  since its beginning there have been countless “little wars but nothing to compare to the World wars of the past….

There are many that claim that the UN is ineffective…..ineffective in everything they attempt….but is this true?

There are some that would accuse the United Nations of being ineffective or—as researcher Scott Pauls puts it—simply “a witness of changing policy preferences” in the world. But that’s far from the case, according to a study of 65 years of UN voting records published in Physica A. Those records show the UN successfully reduces the chance of war. “The evidence demonstrates that the UN is more effective at achieving its mandate of avoiding wars than many experts think,” researcher Skyler Cranmer says in a press release.

The researchers from Dartmouth College and Ohio State University looked at voting alliances in the UN—both large and small, long-term and short-term—called “affinity communities.” Pauls says such voting alliances served to “reduce the probability of conflict” during the past 65 years. “There is more nuance in voting records than was previously thought,” Cranmer adds. The study also looked at the UN’s effectiveness in spreading democracy and building defensive alliances.

Personally, I like the idea of the UN…..and yes they have been stifled on many occasions for things they attempted…..but that can be blamed on the idea that 5 countries can control the fate of all.

The Security Council in the UN are controlled by permanent members….US, UK, France, Russia and China…all others sit on the council in a rotation scheme…these 5 members can control the issues that come before the council….the UN could truly become a governing body but only when ALL countries enter into this thing as equals.

Until then the UN will continue to appear as if being ineffective.  If it is ineffective you can blame the “Big 5” as the reason for failure.

Dammit! I Had To Work!

While I was on a break yesterday, the 4th, I did read my Twitter account to be sure that we did not start a new war or something…..

It is a shame that some people had to work….but if it is their job…they just buck up and do it….that is almost everybody.

What I did read was a Tweet by the UN ambassador, Nikki Haley about the NK missile thing……Nikki Haley, the South Carolina governor (with no real experience in international relations) that Donald Trump appointed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, decided that it would be a good idea to whine on Twitter that she was being forced to work on the Fourth of July thanks to North Korea.

Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley faced backlash today for a tweet saying she spent the Fourth of July in meetings about North Korea

“Spending my 4th in meetings all day. #ThanksNorthKorea,” Haley tweeted.

North Korea claimed Tuesday that they performed their first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

This isn’t the first time Haley has been critiqued for her social media presence. A tweet she posted last month about cutting funds for United Nations peacekeeping was met with confused reactions.

Gee poor thing had to work on the 4th……bummer!  What about the troops around the world that are fighting our many wars and they did not take to Twitter….

Sorry but this is almost unbelievable……what does she think her job is?  Maybe a 9-5 posting?  She is suppose to be a diplomat…maybe she should try and remember that before taking to Twitter and complaining about her job.  Or better yet resign and have all her holidays off.

Keep Talking You Dumbass

Since the abstention by the US on a settlement resolution at the UN every right wing dullard has been having a stroke….of course there is always the religious overtones but that has nothing to do with this resolution….it is what is right and wrong and the stealing of land and the destruction of crops to make room for more illegal settlements is just flat out WRONG!

And of course BiBi is butt hurt and doing what most authoritarians do….he is slashing out at the countries that voted against Israel.  To the point of threatening the United States…..

PM Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel and his cabinet ministers are trying to punch above their weight. He wants to punish the UN, and apparently even the United States.

He threatens the one country that made the state of Israel possible….

He also threatens 10 other countries……These countries were Britain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay and Spain…Israel does not have so many friends that it can afford to lose their biggest supporters….

But by all means BiBi…keep talking….

He then continued, “This is an anti-Israel resolution against Israel, the Jewish people, and the state of the Jews.”  And this is the feeling of many Americans….people who have NOT read the resolution….they do what they do best…regurgitate bullshit!

The resolution isn’t anti-Israel, doesn’t mention anything about Jews, and doesn’t challenge the Jewish state.  It just points out that Israelis are not at liberty to steal Palestinian land.  The United Nations Charter forbids the acquisition of territory by military force, so Israel’s conquest of the Palestinian West Bank in 1967 is no warrant for it to colonize said territory or to expropriate and keep in a condition of statelessness the people who live there.

Maybe read that paragraph again…..it takes time to get through those pea brains on the Right!

Only a moron would claim antisemitism….the condemnation is of the governmental actions not the people or the religion….there is a difference…look it up.

Plus he, BiBi, is injecting himself into this society…..claims of US behind the vote….

Israel has been voicing its displeasure about the United States’ abstention from a UN Security Council vote Friday that called for an end to illegal Israeli settlements. So has Donald Trump, who’s vowed “things will be different after Jan. 20th.” Now Israel is offering the president-elect what it says is proof that President Obama helped set up the resolution, the Guardian reports. “We have rather iron-clad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place,” a rep for PM Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News. Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to DC, elaborated Monday. “It’s an old story that the United Nations gangs up on Israel,” he said, per the Hill. “What is new is that the United States did not stand up and oppose that gang up. And what is outrageous is that the United States was actually behind that gang up.”

The Guardian notes Israel making this threat to present “evidence” to an incoming president against one still in the Oval Office “appears almost unprecedented.” But the White House insists that while Obama did decide US Ambassador Samantha Power would abstain during Friday’s vote, he wasn’t involved in putting together the resolution. “We did not draft this resolution; we did not introduce this resolution. We made this decision when it came up for a vote,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said Friday in a statement. Meanwhile, Israel indicated it’s going to flout the UN resolution and go ahead with plans for thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem, per the New York Times. “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” Netanyahu said Monday.

Wait!  There is proof?  And how did you come by this “proof”?  Are you spying on your best friend?

Is that a foot sticking out of your mouth?  Need a little hot sauce for that shoe?

Please BiBi…keep talking…..

Who’s The Boss?

Nope, not some nostalgic crap about a 1980’s sitcom….this is a real question after a vote at the Untied Nations…..for decades the Israelis have been stealing land from Palestinians under a cloud of deceit and lies…..finally the UN has stepped up and given a resolution against this land theft.

Israel’s liar in chief BiBi is fuming over the vote and is pissed at the US for not voting instead we abstained….

The Israeli government’s furious reaction to the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution opposing Jewish settlements in occupied territory underscores its fundamental and bitter dispute with the international community about the future of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, writes Josef Federman at AP. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists there is nothing wrong with his controversial policy of building Jewish towns in occupied areas that the Palestinians, with overwhelming world support, claim for their state. But Friday’s UN rebuke was a stark reminder that the rest of the world considers it a crime. The embattled leader is now placing his hopes in the incoming administration of Donald Trump, which is shaping up as the first major player to embrace Israel’s nationalist right and its West Bank settlements.

In a series of statements, Netanyahu has criticized the Obama administration for letting Resolution 2334 pass Friday by abstaining, using unprecedented language that has turned a policy disagreement into a personal vendetta. “From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording, and demanded that it be passed,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. The resolution marked a sharp international rebuke of Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank and east Jerusalem—territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as parts of a future independent state. Some 600,000 Israelis now live in the two areas, complicating any partition of the land between Israel and a future Palestine. On Sunday, Netanyahu also summoned the US ambassador and the ambassadors of 10 other nations to protest the vote, reports USA Today.

BiBi has been lying for 20 years to the American public….and what is it to say that he continues to do so……but he says what every demagogue says…..BiBi is butt hurt and vows REVENGE…not on the US but on Palestinians…..a true peaceful humanitarian.  (He’s a douche)

As a response to the resolution, Israel and it’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to conduct ‘revenge demolitions‘ of Palestinian homes; approved building some 5,600 housing units in East Jerusalem for illegal settlements;  cut funding to five UN institutions worth $7.8 million; threatened to directly target UNRWA with Trump’s help; and recalled it’s ambassadors from Senegal and New Zealand.

What’s he gonna do?  Israel needs the US more than the US needs Israel.  I say call his bluff…that is what you do to bullies and dolts……

Keeping watching the news….the fallout of this situation……you will see WHO is really in charge of the government of the US….it has already begun…..Senators on the Israeli payroll are already voicing their handlers words….

UN, A Paralyzed Institution

Not many Americans have anything nice to say about the UN……and most of the opinions are based on crap thinking…..I have written about what I see as wrong with the UN and its place in the world.

As an introduction here is my op-ed from a year ago……

Since I can remember conservs have hated the United Nations…….and they will go on and on about this failure or that……got me to thinking why do so many absolutely hate the UN?

I guess most of it is a monetary thing…….Best Answer:  Most Americans hate it, because we pay the majority of its bills, provide the bulk of its military power and yet are almost universally hated by the very people we try to help…….

Source: Why Hate The United Nations (UN)? – In Saner Thought

I have a friend in Russia that is a Middle East analyst like myself and she has written a great piece about the UN’s problems……

Maria Dubovikova, president of the International Middle Eastern Studies Club

A leading Russian political analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs has described the United Nations Security Council as a talk shop that has become a battleground where global powers indulge in mutual recriminations.

Speaking to Arab News from Moscow on Sunday, Maria Dubovikova, president of the International Middle Eastern Studies Club (IMESClub), said: “Saturday’s vote at the Security Council has shown that the Council is in total paralysis. It is totally outdated. It has become a playing field for global powers who are interested only in flexing their muscles. It is a place where mutual recriminations are exchanged. It has been reduced to being a place where countries fight only for their national interests.”

Source: Russian-Arab affairs analyst slams UN’s ‘total paralysis’ over Syria – The Muslim Times

She promotes the interests of Saudi Arabia…..a position that is not to my liking….but even though we disagree on this we agree on the UN and the fact that one country can paralyze the institution to the point of being ineffectual.

I have said many times….after 70 years it is time for NO one country with veto power in the Security Council…..you want the UN to work then eliminate that one power…

WE DEMAND the UN ADOPT OUR: The 2016 Humane Protocol | ForceChange

My friend and regular reader and commenter on IST, Maid, screen name on IST, has started a petition campaign…..please take some time and check out the petition and sign if you agree with her….

Target: UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, The dead child’s image was the photo SHOT seen ROUND the WORLD. It should have been enough for the UNIT

Source: WE DEMAND the UN ADOPT OUR: The 2016 Humane Protocol | ForceChange

I like people that get involved….they are not just talk…..we need more people that feel it is their duty to do the right thing……and get involved.

KUDOS to @Maid…….you have my support!