The United Nations not so long ago was sacrosanct in the mainstream media and among "right-thinking" liberals of not-too-extremist bent.
U.N. critics were lumped with the supposedly troglodytic Sen. Jesse Helms.
Various events, including the following, have begun to change the perception:
- The UN's failure to prevent the genocide in Rwanda.
- The discovery that the "Oil for Food" program run by the UN was the greatest corruption story of modern times, implicating high UN staffers, France, and Russia.
- The widespread child sexual abuse by UN forces in the Congo, which at the same time have proven totally ineffectual in bringing any peace to that war-torn failed state.
- The assignment to the UN's Human Rights Commission of such exemplars as Libya and the Sudan.
The UN's cachet as mankind's "last, best hope" protected it for a long time from scrutiny directed at its actual performance. No longer. The facts, combined with the rise of the blogosphere as an alternate source of information, have begun to reveal this Emperor's state of undress.
For example, Winds of Change blogs the sybaritic lifestyle of international bureaucrats in Kabul; and Wretchard blogs the arrogant words and pathetic performance of the UN in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunamis.
The intimidating aura of good intentions will no longer deter the thousands of blogger ants gnawing at the foundation of the light blue Cartel of Tyrants. And about time, too.
I don't mean to advocate either complete withdrawal from the UN, or expelling it from New York, although both concepts have a certain emotional appeal. But it's refreshing that the truth about the actual performance of the institution are becoming known. Once the truth is known, accurate analysis and appropriate action may follow.
Keep fisking the Light Blue Mafia!
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