Kathreb

Friday, March 11, 2005

BANDS

After a slew of political posts I just thought I'd mention that I saw the Kings of Leon at the 9:30 Club last month which I thought was great and the review agreed (at the end of the article). And last night Ash played at the Blackcat which was also great. Ash is huge in Australia but their obscurity in the US guaranteed a cheap ticket and smaller crowd - bonus!

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Thursday, March 10, 2005

Anne Applebaum has a Wapo opinion piece defending Mr. Bolton arguing that he may just be the man to shake up this undemocratic behemoth by being his outspoken and blunt self. I see two factors that will prevent this from being the case. First is that Mr. Bolton is a nationalist and not a globalist. His “achievements” are predominantly times when he took the initiative to disregard what the rest of the world was saying and did what was in the interest of the US. There is nothing wrong with that but it seems that building up lost credibility and restoring some dignity to the UN (especially as a more democratic body) is not necessarily in the national interest of the US. What Mr. Bolton may see as being in the interest of the US is likely to not be in the interest of the UN or member countries and it is difficult to see how this might be reconciled.

Second, I think it is crazy to think that one man can change the UN. Nobody denies that the UN needs reform but the ability to do so rests on gaining the support of member nations. It seems highly unlikely that change can be achieved by charging forward alone or by aggravating other members of the UN to the extent they became a greater hindrance than ever. Mr. Bolton has shown distinct lack of tact and charisma that would be needed to coax reluctant nations to join the US vision of UN changes. And he simply cannot make any changes without support from other countries. I personally do not see him as being the person who can drum up a coalition supporting change. Especially if some of those changes will diminish the power of some the nations whose support is requisite.

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Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Logic to make your brain explode

I opened this mornings paper to be confronted with the distasteful news that John Bolton, hater of the UN, unilateralist extraoridnaire, has been formally nominated to become US Ambassador to the UN. Condi Rice who made the nomitation tried to mitigate the impact by reminding us that fellow AEI necon Jeane Kirkpatrick has already blazed this trail so it is not the end of the world. (I am glad to say I am too young to remember anything of Ms. Kirkpatrick's time in the UN. Although I have read stuff about her since, I feel fully unqualified at this point to say anymore on her record). Some are even cautiously optimistic that his hardline ways may jolt the UN into taking necessary reform. It is however, difficult to see this news as being "good".

The most logical reason to advocate such a figure would presumably be to promote reform in the UN. Yet, despite many claims that Mr. Bolton is an intelligent man, one thing he has clearly demonstrated on so many occasions is that he is not a diplomat - this man has no tact. More disconcerting is that rather than having a record calling for UN reform, his mantra has been to call on the US to ignore, avoid, and circumvent the UN. His credibility to be a genuine mover for reform seems highly questionable. I am only comforted by the knowledge that such a position in not able to direct policy.

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