WAKE UP AND SMELL THE SPREAD SHEETS

You would think that the people who are so insistent on the ability of the UN to do just about anything would have to confront the institution's fundamental ineptness and, oh yeah, the enormous scandal of the Oil for Food debacle. The New York Times editorial page has been calling for the UN to run Iraq for months, and it's finally reached a point where even they have to deal with the scandal. But they are so committed to protecting the UN at all costs that their vision of what the scandal is and what it means for the future of the institution and its credibility is so distorted as to be virtually unrecognizable.

Money graf:

It seems to have fairly well served the limited goals of keeping sanctions intact enough to prevent Iraq from rebuilding unconventional weapons and of easing the burdens on ordinary Iraqis. But exporting the oil and buying the consumer goods required working with a corrupt Iraqi government, with Security Council members eager to maximize commercial gains and with some of Iraq's less than scrupulous neighbors.

U.N. officials have been reporting systematic corruption in the program for years, but the Security Council never insisted on a thorough cleanup. Washington acquiesced, since the faulty program was the only way to maintain support for the sanctions.

It worked to ease the burdens of ordinary Iraqis? The damn country is falling apart around us, and them. Nothing works -- how many articles has the Times run on the complete collapse of the medical system?

But of course, the program "required working with a corrupt Iraqi government," so what's a supervising UN to do? No mention of course of the fact that the UN director of the program has himself been implicated.

As to the idea that Washington acquiesced (as opposed to the French and Russians, the Security Council members who actually were trying "to maximize commercial gains," and in France's case whose bank was managing all the money with no transparency whatsoever) I refer you to the piece in today's OpinionJournal.com and let you make the call.

Update: A devastating answer to anyone who would softpedal the investigations for fear they will hurt the UN's credibility just when it is needed in Iraq (like, say, the New York Times editorial page) here.

Comments

[Schwing]

they should call it "The UNY Times"

[The Kid]

The UN did such a fine job of protecting the innocents at Srebrenica and in Rwanda, it's only natural that its expertise be solicited for Iraq. Heck, give the oil sales back to them too. Let's let bygones be bygones.

If I needed help, I'd want a member of the Anlgosphere to provide it.