Oil-for-Food update

Oil-For-Food has finally hit the mainstream. I just saw that old lady on McNeill Lehrer interview Senator Norm Coleman, who recently called for the resignation of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Mr. Annan was at the helm of the U.N. for all but a few days of the Oil-for-Food program, and he must, therefore, be held accountable for the U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses. The consequences of the U.N.'s ineptitude cannot be overstated: Saddam was empowered to withstand the sanctions regime, remain in power, and even rebuild his military. Needless to say, he made the Iraqi people suffer even more by importing substandard food and medicine under the Oil-for-Food program and pawning it off as first-rate humanitarian aid.

Since it was never likely that the U.N. Security Council, some of whose permanent members were awash in Saddam's favors, would ever call for Saddam's removal, the U.S. and its coalition partners were forced to put troops in harm's way to oust him by force. Today, money swindled from Oil-for-Food may be funding the insurgency against coalition troops in Iraq and other terrorist activities against U.S. interests. Simply put, the troops would probably not have been placed in such danger if the U.N. had done its job in administering sanctions and Oil-for-Food.

The movement has some momentum, but the French and the Germans, unsurprisingly, are resisting the move.

President Bush and even the poncy, internationalist State Department are endorsing the probe.

President Bush twice Thursday refused to say whether Annan should resign and didn't use the opportunities to back him. Instead, Bush demanded ''a full and fair and open accounting'' of the oil-for-food program, saying this was essential for U.S. taxpayers to continue supporting the United Nations and ''for the integrity of the organization.''

I'm not saying that Annan specifically governred the UN with the aim of personally enriching himself and his family, but it is difficult to ignore the fact that Annan has been overseeing the program (in his capacity as head of the Secretariat) for all but a few days of its existence.

Some are saying that this is an effort less against Mr. Annan, and more of a neocon conspiracy to kill the UN. The eminently readable Belmont Club thorougly debunks this notion:

Annan is not being taken to task for calling the Iraq war illegal. He is being held to account for failing to carry out the mandate given him by the Security Council. A recent post, The Nimitz in UN Service: 1998 describes how French reconnaissance aircraft and naval vessels undermined United Nations U-2 flights attempting to enforce the Security Council mandated armaments blockade on Iraq -- the very blockade Annan was duty bound to support but which he thwarted at every turn. These, like Annan's actions, were devoid of legitimacy and completely illegal under the rules the "international community" professes to reverence. If the United Nations are not a sham they should punish their unfaithful servant forthwith. But otherwise the United States should show it the very same respect that Kofi Annan afforded it.