Kofi Annan retires end of this year...what is his legacy??

[Dom Tuk]

To me it is the man who presided over the massacres in Rwanda/Darfur. Saw the breakdown of Yugoslavia and the mass killings in the Balkans. Saw Palestinians being continually killed and could not do anything about Israeli violation of various UN treaties. And worst of all could not stop the murderous Americans and British troops from waging an illegal war in Iraq. A total failure in my opinion. What do you think?

[warpig2]

Good question, but is it the failure of one man or the failure of the UN in general?

[noxlumos]

I agree that the UN is impotent in most cases, corrupt in others, just not sure, as warpig says, that it's the fault solely of the leadership. We have this great love of democracy with all it's grindingly slow meetings, agreements, everyone being on board etc, that a real leader wouldn't stand a chance of actually getting anything doen anyway. The good are, at times, the victims of our own desire to be fair, whilst those who have their own agendas hide behind that in order to execute them. A very sorry state of affairs for the people it theoretically is supposed to help and protect.

[johnlambert]

The problem with the UN is that it's forces have no mandate to enforce any ceasefire, we could only open fire in order to defend ourselfs in Bosnia, and then only if we belived our lives were in extreme danger, that's why the invasion of Kosovo was a NATO operation

[warpig2]

Interesting read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_nations

[ConfusedJohn]

The UN is hopeless. Rich Western governments pay huge sums of money to it to salve their collective consciences while it stands idly by and does nothing. I challenge anyone to watch Shooting Dogs and not be disgusted.

[anotheoldgit]

Murderous Americans And British troops.

I take exception to this Dom Tuk, I'm not interested in what you call the Americans, but I do take great exception at you calling our brave British Troops, Murderous. Especially when they are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, a savage, uncivilised band of cowardly murderous cut-throats, who wear no uniform, and who will shake you by the hand and then stab you in the back.

You should be ashamed to call yourself British, if indeed that is what you are. Instead of airing your anti western spiel on this site, get out there and fight along-side your Muslim brothers, or support the hand that feeds you.

[Dom Tuk]

Especially when they are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, a savage, uncivilised band of cowardly murderous cut-throats, who wear no uniform, and who will shake you by the hand and then stab you in the back.

Just take the word 'no' before the uniform and the Iraqis, shia and sunni (except of course the puppet shia gov), will describe the invading army.

The americans bombed from the air (the brits are guilty by association and also by providing intelligence and other support). they killed indiscriminately. They killed men women and children. they killed wedding parties and they killed school going children. of the 600,000 dead atleast 150,000 can be attributed to the shock and awe of bombs dropped from 35,000 feet. And anotheoldgit you ask me to be ashamed, while you salute these forces.

The poor soldiers did what was asked of them. They are in a job and the masters made the mistakes. I agree with that. But i will not hesitate from calling what is blatant murder as just that and not hide behind some silly notion that the armed forces are scared and cannot be criticised. If the hand that feeds me commits a horrendous crime against humanity then i am not going to let some sentimental sop about the armed forces from stating the truth.

[NH]

The Rwandan genocides were during the time of Boutros Ghali, by the way. So was Yugoslavia, largely. (1994 and 1993-1997 respectively).

Personally I blame the world; there's so many people fighting for some cause or another that to try and stop them all is just a futile aim. You've listed all those, but there's also Zimbabwe, which continues to get worse and gets none of the media's attention, although a ceasefire occurred in 2001 there was the issue of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, there's the incidences of Islamic terrorism in India, the India-Pakistan conflicts, the NI Troubles were still occurring in the late 90s and there's almost certainly still tension there, the war in the former Zaire now Democratic Republic of Congo...

I still haven't listed all of them. And you expected one man to stop this?

Another of the UN's basic aims is to stop WW3 from starting, and to be fair, it hasn't happened these last 10 years. Because everyone has a specific target to kick the **** out of, not a whole world to defend themselves against.

[anotheoldgit]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bombings_ in_Iraq_since_2003
I suggest Dom Tuk that you take a look at the above site, to see what hideous uncivilised crimes your murderous bands of cut-throats are now carrying out on a daily basis. these crimes are mostly against their own people. How can you possibly support them? They kill indiscriminately (your words).

Do you honestly believe that it would not be beyond these savage' twisted minds to cowardly hide behind a wedding party so as to try and cover up their evil deeds? Then cry crocodile tears when innocent men, women and children are killed. No Dom Tuk these mad men do not care about their own miserable lives so how can you expect them to care about others?

Troops at the scene found a variety of weapons, including shotguns, handguns, rifles and machine guns. They also found foreign passports, four-by-four vehicles, jewelry, a satellite telephone and the equivalent of $1,000 in Iraqi dinars.

So please do not talk about crimes against humanity, they and all those that support them do not know the meaning of these three words.