{"id":568,"date":"2004-10-18T17:29:06","date_gmt":"2004-10-18T17:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:08:52","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:08:52","slug":"if_you_see_blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=568","title":{"rendered":"“If You See Blue Helmets, Run.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Normblog<\/a>, we bring you Kofi Annan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Annan also dismissed any suggestion that France, Russia and China had been prepared to ease sanctions on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in return for oil contracts.<\/p>\n

Iraq tried to manipulate foreign governments by awarding contracts — and bribes — to foreign companies and political figures in countries that showed support for ending sanctions, in particular Russia, France and China, the final report by the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

But Annan said it was “inconceivable” that Saddam’s activities could have influenced policy in the countries concerned.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“I don’t think the Russian or the French or the Chinese government would allow itself to be bought because some of his companies are getting relative contracts from the Iraqi authorities,” Annan said. “I don’t believe that at all.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s inconceivable, these are very serious and important governments. You are not dealing with banana republics.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You don’t get many hanging curveballs like that in your life.<\/p>\n

[Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up]<\/p>\n

\nVizzini:<\/b> HE DIDN’T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.<\/p>\n

\nInigo Montoya:<\/b> You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a laigniappe, the L.A. Times today has a long article<\/a> on the “Emergency Sex” U.N. trio.<\/p>\n

Six years later, after stints in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and Liberia, the three came to believe that not only is the U.N. unable to keep pace with its grand ideals in the new world order, it actually allowed two genocides. They cope by immersing themselves in their work, alcohol, faith and “emergency sex.”<\/p>\n

Thomson, who spent two years pulling bodies out of mass graves in Rwanda and the Bosnian town of Srebrenica \u2014 corpses of people who had sought safety with the U.N. \u2014 concludes: “If blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run. Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— JK UPDATES (LA Times link expired) —<\/p>\n

* See Thomson’s colleague and former U.N. human rights lawyer Kenneth Cain in The Guardian Observer<\/a>, as he recounts his experiences at greater length.<\/p>\n

* This Sydney Morning Herald editorial<\/a> also has excerpts.<\/p>\n

* Samizdata reviews trhe resulting book, Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six years later, after stints in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and Liberia, the three came to believe that not only is the U.N. unable to keep pace with its grand ideals in the new world order, it actually allowed two genocides. They cope by immersing themselves in their work, alcohol, faith and “emergency sex.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}