by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
October 13, 2004
With a commitment from the European Union to supply battlegroup "hit squads" in crisis situations for the United Nations in his back pocket, UN Secretary General Kofi annan is talking tough.
"You may not necessarily have to fight," annan said in an exclusive interview in Monday's Irish Times. "You sometimes have to show force in order not to use force."
In some crisis areas, the inhabitants were intimidated by "local bullies" who would not stand up to an international force, he added.
Is this the same Kofi annan who "When the first cruise missiles slammed into their targets in Baghdad, retired to his expansive 38th-floor office at UN headquarters, sat at his mahogany desk and slowly smoked a cigar?" (Independent, December 1988).
annan once explained his private brand of activism to a reporter: "I'm not one of those people who believe you have to pound the table to be tough."
With promised support from the EU and the prospect of the participation of Irish troops, the UN's secretary general is morphing from mealy-mouthed bureaucrat to Mr. Tough Guy before the eyes of the global village.
about to highlight the EU "hit squad" concept in a major speech at the Forum on Europe in Dublin Castle on Thursday, annan says, "I'm very excited about that prospect, in the sense that there are quite a few problems which you can either contain or nip in the bud if you are able to send in a force quickly."
Sending in forces quickly, Kofi annan style led to genocide in Rwanda 10 years ago, and an ongoing powder keg in today's Darfur.
With a deadline of this December to report back to annan, a high-level panel, is expected to urge changes in the concept of state sovereignty so that military action can be taken where states are committing genocide against their own citizens or failing to protect them from extermination.
Sources said the forum was the most appropriate location for annan's speech because it would ensure that senior politicians and key civil society representatives understood annan's viewpoint on the value of EU participation, "particularly military action", in crisis management operations.
There were implications also for the forthcoming referendum debate on the European Constitution as it would be clear that the EU-UN military co-operation was "not compromising our neutrality, but rather it is the EU assisting the UN," according to official sources.
The UN and the EU are in sync in promoting the United Sates as the bully superpower.
annan has said that he considers the U.S. war in Iraq "illegal".
according to an EU exhibition launched in the heart of Brussels last month, the EU is posed to overtake america to become the premier superpower.
The pop-art collage, mounted in a tent outside the European Commission, narrated 50 years of EU history, projecting events into the future in what some called an unusually frank display of European ambition.
Segments stretched across 80 years of canvas predicted that the 21st century will be the "European Century" as the EU pushes its borders deep into Eurasia, North africa and the Middle East and comes to dominate world affairs through its vast "legal" and "moral" reach.
Under the heading The Roman Empire Returns, it said the EU will be renamed "The Union" once it grows to 50 states over the next three decades.
The EU would then be prepared to defend the international order against the "american onslaught".
Hype aside, in the new EU-UN regime, one bully simply replaces another: "The lonely superpower can bribe, bully, and impose its will almost anywhere in the world, but when its back is turned, its policy is weakened."
Welcome to the international world of a two-headed bully.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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