THE SECRETARY-GENERAL’S JOB Former New York State Senator Roy M. Goodman stated in a letter to the New York Post that “faulting” Annan’s work for his possible role in the Oil-for-Food scandal is “counterproductive” to our diplomatic efforts in Iraq….

[Via Friends of Saddam]

When you look at Mr. Annan’s role in the Oil-for-Food scandal, his role supervising the UN mishap that contributed to the massacre at Srebrenica, and the UN mishaps that contributed to the Rwanda genocide, you see a very sad track record. I do not blame him for these events but I cannot ignore the fact that he was directly involved in supervising the UN actions. The possiblity that the success of our diplomatic efforts in Iraq depend on Mr. Annan’s reputation is a mistake. In fact the opposite is probably true. His reputation is associated with several major diplomatic failures by the UN and it is reasonable to assume that UN should have done much better or at least learned from their mistakes. If we continue to ignore recent UN history it is reasonable to conclude that involvement of the UN in forming a new government in Iraq will be the kiss of death. There is so much to fix at the UN and too little time for Iraq. I fear for the continued loss of American and Iraqi lives in Iraq but I do not see the UN as part of a viable long term solution.