Monday, June 18, 2007

Irony

One of the things that the Bush administration has done that I've approved of is their push about the genocide in Darfur. It hasn't won them any points among some conservatives and I haven't always been happy with the speed of their strategy, but they have been pressing the issue with Sudan through the U.N. (which is what they should have done in Iraq, but I digress). The Guardian reports, however, that the deal recently pushed for by the Bush administration and reached may all be undone. Why? The U.S. refused to pay their dues to the U.N. Snippet:

But former Colorado senator Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, warned Congress last week that the proposed Darfur deployment, and other current or future UN operations, were being jeopardised by mounting US debts. "As of June 2007 the US was $569m in permanent arrears to the UN for UN peacekeeping," Mr Wirth said. "The administration's budget request for the UN peacekeeping account for fiscal year 2008 [beginning in October this year] was found to be short by an additional estimated $500m.

"If this is left unaddressed, US arrears to the UN will exceed $1bn by the end of 2007 for peacekeeping alone," Mr Wirth said.

Actions as well as words, Mr. Bush.

2 comments:

Scott said...

It reminds me of how I react when george does something I consider good. You know, things like (albeit miserly) increases in AIDS funding for the third world. I actually get angry the vile when the p.o.s. says something good. Like you point out, it is either in word and not in deed, or there are so many strings attached that it is just as meaningless.

Is it just me? I can't think of ever getting angry when a person says something moral or ethical.

B.D. said...

Indeed. It's hard to accept moral or ethical actions from someone whose administration has so far stood for so much immorality and unethical behaviour. As you note, with so many strings attached these things become meaningless.

I will state that Congress is the one with the purse strings. However, without Bush on board whipping his people into shape, passing a bill paying a portion of the dues isn't going to happen.