United Nations
October 1, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I don’t trust and don’t want to rely on news accounts of important speeches such as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s and President Obama’s at the UN last week, or Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s at the UN today. I linked to the full text version of both Rouahani’s and Obama’s speeches last week and took a look at them here (Rouahani) and here (Obama). The Office of the Israeli Prime Minister
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September 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It requires little discussion to show that the U.N. approved resolution on chemical weapons in Syria is a joke. As Brett Schaefer and Baker Spring point out, the resolution is toothless because it fails to establish a direct enforcement mechanism for assuring the complete application of Chemical Weapons Convention requirements in Syria. The resolution provides that in the event of non-compliance with its terms, the Security Council will impose undefined
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September 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama addressed the United Nations today. It’s a fool’s errand if you think about it, and Obama’s remarks were duly foolish. He began by assuring the world of America’s near-pacifism and lack of seriousness when it comes to fighting terrorism. Obama cited our retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan, new limitations on the use of drones, and his “diligent” work to close Gitmo. The world already understands how ineffectual you
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September 7, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Barack Obama fancies himself some kind of a deliverer and he has indeed delivered us. He has delivered us into a parallel universe. In this parallel universe the prince of peace serves as the president of the United States and argues in favor of a simulacrum of war. He disparages the United Nations as a fount of meaningless twaddle. Circumventing the United Nations can be a matter of high principle
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September 4, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I have been trying to keep up with the best articulation of arguments for and against our taking military action against the Syrian regime. I find myself agreeing with arguments on both sides, including Paul Mirengoff’s here, though not strongly. I’m ambivalent. President Obama got us into this mess with his big mouth. For a handy reminder, check out this New York Times account of how we got here. “We
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August 4, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Late next month the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will begin releasing its massive Fifth Assessment Report (AR5 in the trade), starting with the report of Working Group I, on the science of climate change. The reports of Working Groups II and III will dribble out in 2014. In previous assessment reports, the entire report with the findings of all three working groups came out at once. I
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July 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
In 2003, Samantha Power wrote in the New Republic: We need: a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored, or permitted by the United States. . . Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the sins of their predecessors. When Willie Brandt went down on one knee in the Warsaw ghetto, his gesture was gratifying to World War II
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July 17, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama’s nominee to serve as our ambassador to the United Nations is the vile Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Problem From Hell. I think the title of her book is a case of projection. At her confirmation hearing today, she was questioned about a statement from her 2003 New Republic article in which she wrote that American foreign policy needed “a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored
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June 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I always expect the worst from Lindsey Graham, and he rarely disappoints. Today, Graham strongly backed Samantha Power for the U.N. ambassador post. But that wasn’t the worst. The worst was his statement that Power “will be a strong supporter of our close friend and ally Israel.” As I said, Graham rarely disappoints. I wonder what evidence Graham would cite in favor of his claim that Power, with her record
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June 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier today, I described Samantha Power, President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to the U.N., as “virulently anti-Israel” and “Israel hating.” These are harsh words. Even some good faith supporters of Israel may consider them unfair. But let’s look at Power’s harsh words about Israel. For example, as I noted in this post: Power has expressed outrage at the way Israel has treated the U.N.’s faux peacekeepers in South Lebanon, the
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June 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It was always just a matter of time until President Obama, once elected to a second term, handed a major position to his favorite foreign policy analyst, Samantha Power. Now, with Susan Rice moving from the U.N. to the White House as National Security Adviser, Obama is set to nominate Power as ambassador to the U.N. Power’s selection for a highly visible position had to await Obama’s second term because
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Early this morning, Scott linked to this article by Anne Bayefsky. I want to give it some further attention. Anne pointed out, and responded to, a repellent column in Foreign Policy Journal by a man named Richard Falk, titled “A Commentary on the Marathon Murders.” You almost have to read it to believe it, but here are a few excerpts: [T]he neocon presidency of George W. Bush was in 2001,
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April 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In a New York Post column Ralph Peters draws five “Lessons of Boston,” all of them worthy of discussion. Lesson no. 3: “Our immigration system is one of terrorism’s best allies.” Victor Davis Hanson elaborates at length in the course of his NRO column “Obama’s psychodramas.” Analyze this: The checkered immigrant family of the two Boston bombers is a tragic advertisement of almost everything wrong with our current immigration policy.
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March 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
If waterboarding, a procedure we inflicted on our own troops, can be considered torture, I suppose that almost anything one doesn’t approve of can be so deemed. And given the proven effectiveness of throwing the term torture around, the temptation to apply it to anything one doesn’t approve of must be difficult for the intellectually dishonest to resist. Thus, sure enough, we find U.N. bureaucrats attempting to define “torture” in
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March 4, 2013 — John Hinderaker
This is one of the litmus tests for liberalism: if you think the United Nations has more moral authority than the United States, you are a liberal. That thought was prompted by this brief AP story, which I’m guessing will not see the light of day in a lot of newspapers: Ambassador Joseph M. Torsella, who represents the U.S. on the U.N.’s budget committee, said in remarks Monday that the
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March 1, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In his most recent verbal assault against Israel, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has characterized Zionism as a crime against humanity along with anti-Semitism, fascism, and, of course, Islamophobia. Isn’t leaving homophobia off such a list itself a crime against humanity? Prime Minister Netanyahu has issued this concise response: “This is a dark and mendacious statement the likes of which we thought had passed from the world.” Netanyahu is constrained by
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February 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Having read Suzanne Garment’s column “With words we govern men,” inspired by Gil Troy’s new book on Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the American opposition to the UN’s 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution, I invited Professor Troy to write something for us following up on his book. He has graciously obliged with a column that highlights the local Minnesota connection to the story. Professor Troy writes: With President Obama’s announcement that
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