Wednesday, April 28, 2004
THE REQUIREMENTS OF A "STANDOFF"
Sometimes " 'tis a siege". At other times, it's a "standoff." Sky reports:
. . . In New York, UN senior adviser Lakhdar Brahimi warned Iraq's US-led administration that an armed confrontation with insurgents in Fallujah would lead to major bloodshed and long-lasting consequences.
"The Coalition Provisional Authority is well aware that, unless this standoff is brought to a resolution through peaceful means, there is great risk of a very bloody confrontation," Brahimi told the UN Security Council. . .
Oh, that's just brilliant.
Interestingly, the CPA is one side. And about the other? The last time the rest of us looked, it takes at least two sides to have a "standoff" -- in case the U.N. doesn't, perchance, know that.
UPDATE: Actually, the U.N. really has little time for such "standoffs." It's far too busy trying to urge the remaking of Iraq into another Middle Eastern success like, umm, Egypt . . . while at the same time not actually being too involved in Iraq. Very nuanced of the world body. Mark Steyn:
. . . Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN’s special envoy to Iraq, has told French radio listeners that "the great poison in the region" is Israeli "domination" and told American television viewers that the Israelis "are not interested in peace, no matter what you seem to believe in America". Well, he certainly hit the ground running. A week in town and he is already sounding like any decades-old Arab despot. In The Spectator a year ago, I warned against handing over Iraq to the UN: it would simply "install as high commissioner a non-Iraqi Arab bureaucrat" who’d "effectively wind up as an Arab League minder, there to ensure that the Iraqis didn’t get any funny ideas (rule of law, representative government) which might unduly discombobulate the Egyptians, Saudis et al." But even I didn’t think they’d ship over such a walking, talking cliché of Arab League man as Mr Brahimi. . . ¶ by Robert, Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Sometimes " 'tis a siege". At other times, it's a "standoff." Sky reports:
. . . In New York, UN senior adviser Lakhdar Brahimi warned Iraq's US-led administration that an armed confrontation with insurgents in Fallujah would lead to major bloodshed and long-lasting consequences.
"The Coalition Provisional Authority is well aware that, unless this standoff is brought to a resolution through peaceful means, there is great risk of a very bloody confrontation," Brahimi told the UN Security Council. . .
Oh, that's just brilliant.
Interestingly, the CPA is one side. And about the other? The last time the rest of us looked, it takes at least two sides to have a "standoff" -- in case the U.N. doesn't, perchance, know that.
UPDATE: Actually, the U.N. really has little time for such "standoffs." It's far too busy trying to urge the remaking of Iraq into another Middle Eastern success like, umm, Egypt . . . while at the same time not actually being too involved in Iraq. Very nuanced of the world body. Mark Steyn:
. . . Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN’s special envoy to Iraq, has told French radio listeners that "the great poison in the region" is Israeli "domination" and told American television viewers that the Israelis "are not interested in peace, no matter what you seem to believe in America". Well, he certainly hit the ground running. A week in town and he is already sounding like any decades-old Arab despot. In The Spectator a year ago, I warned against handing over Iraq to the UN: it would simply "install as high commissioner a non-Iraqi Arab bureaucrat" who’d "effectively wind up as an Arab League minder, there to ensure that the Iraqis didn’t get any funny ideas (rule of law, representative government) which might unduly discombobulate the Egyptians, Saudis et al." But even I didn’t think they’d ship over such a walking, talking cliché of Arab League man as Mr Brahimi. . . ¶ by Robert, Wednesday, April 28, 2004
