Friday, June 06, 2008
Orwell nods
The United States, at least under George W. Bush, is letting the clowns have the circus all to themselves:
The United States has quietly informed Western allies of its intention to walk away from the U.N. Human Rights Council, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
The U.S. delegation has observer status, with the right to speak, in the 47-member state forum, which meets in Geneva, and has never stood for election to the Council since it was set up two years ago.
Diplomatic sources and rights activists said that U.S. officials had informed the European Union on Friday morning of its intention to halt its involvement in the Council.
"They said they were going to disengage totally," said one representative of a rights watchdog group.
In a Council debate on Friday on the situation in Myanmar, the United States failed to take the floor on a topic on which until now it has always been vocal, a possible sign that it had little further interest in the body. The Council replaced the widely discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
But it is seen by critics as having fallen under control of a bloc of Islamic and African countries, which have a majority when backed by their frequent allies Russia, China and Cuba.
The question is, when will the New York Times and the leading lights of the Democratic party denounce the Bush administration for insisting that the United States preserve some shred of self respect?
I predict tomorrow.
CWCID: LGF.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Jun 07, 12:02:00 AM:
The word will be ENGAGEMENT.OTOH, if we had an eloquent UN Ambassador such as Moynihan or Kirkpatrick or Bolton to resoundingly denounce the clowns, then that might be an engagement worth doing.
By 
randian, at
Sat Jun 07, 02:22:00 AM:
This is good, but when are we going to stop paying for it?
