April 16, 2005

Slick Kofi

Hmm...now this isn't fake. Apparently the U.N. posterboy for inefficiency Kofi Annan is placing the blame for Saddam's skimming cash from the Oil for Food program at the doorsteps of the United States and Britain (quotes from the Washington Times):

According to Mr. Annan's latest account, most of the money pocketed by Saddam "came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food program, and it was on the American and British watch."

"Possibly, they were the ones who knew exactly what was going on and that the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan, because they were allies."

Nice try, Kofi! (Isn't he buddies with Bill Clinton, a.k.a. Slick Willie?)

The U.S. and the U.K. aren't taking this lying down, however:

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain was "consistently in the lead in seeking to enforce sanctions against Iraq" but the actual enforcement "was the responsibility of Iraq, all other U.N. member-states and the U.N. administration."

U.S. officials said they were somewhat puzzled by Mr. Annan's comments, given his own son's involvement in the corruption scandal, as well as the embarrassment suffered by Mr. Annan and the United Nations itself. [emphasis mine]

Frankly, there's nothing puzzling about it. It seems to me that Kofi is more concerned with saving his own hide than truly finding out what happened so that such a thing doesn't occur again. By using the usual whipping boy (the U.S.) and her staunchest ally in Iraq (the U.K.), Kofi hopes to transfer any blame from himself. It's not a surprising tactic...isn't most of the world eager to find fault with the U.S. for something? Especially something to do with Iraq?

It's similar in some ways to what's going on in the Senate these days, with top Democrats pointing their fingers at Tom DeLay for engaging in activities (hiring family members, going on prepaid junkets) most senators (from both parties) participate in: jump to blame the other guy while ignoring your own inconsistencies.

In the corporate world, a CEO caught with his hand in the cookie jar (Enron, MCI Worldcom) is thrown to the wolves. Kofi Annan might not have directly participated in this fraud, but it happened on his watch, under his policies. It's time he was held accountable.

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