Sadder -- but wiser?

Captain America

Shame to, the dreams and aspirations projected on the UN has gone bust. But unexpected? No. The same tyrants that led to creation of the League of Nations and UN have for some time made the UN useless.

Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices

This reads like contempt for anything other than the power that comes out the barrel of a gun.

Not a very attractive position.

And as approach, not a conspicuously successful one over the last 7 years.

Gratifying though I suppose. At least to some.

Verity

I don't remember voting for Utopia. I must have missed that bit. Oh, wait a minute, I don't remember having any form of a vote in the UN at all ... yet this is the uber-legislative body in the sky ... dictating to democracies and overseeing treaties, and no one gets a vote.

Please don't lump India in with garbage like Zimbabwe and other dictatorships, Burma, Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Chile and so on. India is a genuine, if noisy, democracy which holds regular open elections and its law is based on English Common Law as it was in Britain before it was debased by the toxicity of Marxism. They are our hope for the future.

Following Jim Bennett's 'The Challenge of The Anglopshere', I have written before that the Marxist UN must be destroyed - preferably on a working day - and all its corrupt international agencies shut down through deprivation of money. And the Anglosphere should cleave more tightly together.

People inevitably cite the WHO as one of those wonderful agencies that's made such a difference - and at such a cost - although it's a giant racket. Does anyone think the Americans wouldn't have developed a cure for typhoid on their own? Or the British or the French? Or the Germans? What did having Congolese or whatever on sitting the committee, or whatever, bring to the party?

Bill Corr

This is utterly disgraceful and the European Council on Foreign Relations should be jolly well ashamed of its collective self for thinking such things and even saying them aloud!

The Spectator ought to print a lengthy rebuttal by Dr. Doudou Diene, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Forms of Intolerance to balance what Melanie Phillips has to say as well as articles by those representatives of Libya, Cuba and Sudan who serve so selflessly on the U.N. bodies which consider abuses of Human Rights by such countries as Israel.

Conservative Cabbie

Frank,
Agreed not a very attractive proposition but it seems unfortunately an inevitable one. What has the U.N. achieved? Whether it's Kuwait, Afghanistan, Kosovo and yes even Iraq, a strong U.S.A. has been needed to police the world. liberals protest, but are happy to live in a world free from tyranny.

Max Kaye

Any notions that the UN was a 'good thing' were dispelled as long ago as 1974 when Arafat addressed the General Assembly whilst wearing a holster.

Verity

This blog is as zippy as treacle on a February morning. I think they may be giving up on blogs as for the last few weeks everything has moved v-e-r-y slowly or gets lost, never to surface again.

Or it may be the ineptitude of the site design that inadvertently came up with the black hole before CERN had had a fair chance.

Or the ineptitude of the technies.

Or whatever ...

Alex Bensky

I used to think it was only right-wing nutcases who said "Get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN." But now...that property in Manhattan is valuable and someone could redevelop it to put something useful there. And I'm sure the government could find something to do with our annual dues and other contributions.

Alex Bensky

Not just a holster, Max, although that would have been bad enough. He was packing. No one said anything about it. I guess they were too busy contemplating Israeli perfidy.

Verity

Frank Pulley's Ethnic Minorifices writes: "This reads like contempt for anything other than the power that comes out the barrel of a gun."

Realistically speaking, that's the only power there is. If you don't have power, you are dependent on the patronisation of the people with guns.

"Not a very attractive position." Beg to disagree. It is certainly a position I would find attractive if push came to shove.

field

The UN reflects the world as it is. It can't be used as a vehicle for promoting the spread of democratic and humane ideas.

Accordingly I have felt there is a need for a World Alliance of Democracies.

We should forget the idea of free trade with dictators: it was ALWAYS a disastrous idea. It was the lack of free trade with the Soviet Union that hastened its demise.

We need a World Alliance for free and fair trade; mutual defence; energy independence; economic development; and cultural interchange.

Potentially this would include
the USA, the EU and other European states, Japan, India, Canada, Australia, most of Latin America and nearly all the Caribbean, much of Africa, Israel,Taiwan and the Philippines .

Anne Leroux

I do not understand why democratic countries financially support the UN. The UN's tolerance for regimes that abuse human rights is appalling.

Kiwi

Let's hope that John McCain makes it all the way to the White House, and then turns his vision for a 'League of Democracies' into reality, effectively sidelining the incompetent and corrupt U.N.
McCain has stated such an organisation of democracies would be at "the core of an international order of peace based on freedom", able to pressure tyrants "with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval", and could "impose sanctions on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions" while helping struggling democracies succeed.

mo from chicago

I want the UN out of my country. The UN is anti-Semitic and anti-American. I don't even want to hear the bullsh*t about it being on international territory in New York City. This territory belongs to the United States of America. I do not agree with a lot of what McCain espouses but he is not a fan of the UN and has discussed an alternative, the League of Democracies.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OR8DTG0&show_article=1
This is much more appealing to me than Obamaniac's @sinine introduction of the Global Poverty Act of 2007 that would massively transfer America’s wealth overseas (Levin).
http://marklevinfan.com/?p=3250
I am a proud capitalist pig. The UN is the epitome of socialism, hell, communism.

Roy

The world body would sooner turn its hand at admonishing all and every aspect of its hosts endeavour’s to police and spread friendly relations. The USA has always done its damnedest to help all and sundry, whether a tiny bit of ulterior motive or not. Take the peaceful use of nuclear energy, what do we get but every country participating in this free distribution of vital information for generating power have used it to make nuclear bomb devices as quickly and as soon as they possibly could. Did they deserve this help? No. Is the west too easy going? Yes.

jose garcia

"Please don't lump India in with garbage like Zimbabwe and other dictatorships, Burma, Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Chile and so on. India is a genuine, if noisy, democracy which holds regular open elections and its law is based on English Common Law as it was in Britain before it was debased by the toxicity of Marxism. They are our hope for the future."

after watching the primark program about child labour in india i dont see much difference with other developing countries, indian society is as unfair and biased as any other in asia,

EUSSR GO HOME

"...wrecking European and US efforts to entrench human rights, liberties and multilateralism." Huh? the euros believe in these things? Why does anybody in this country believe that - or the euros?

I had to look twice- Melanie says this about the UN - and there I thought she MUST be talking about the euSSR:
"It ignores, condones or protects gross abuses of human rights, while attacking and undermining democracies which abide by them"

In other words - the euSSR is the worlds greatest monument to hypocrisy - which it feeds with our money. Of course the UN emulates it!

Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices

Conservative Cabbie

The US is a declining power. If it goes for more Iraq's (as one senses Melanie would like it to) that decline is going to be the more rapid.

Anyone else find Melanie's gloating deeply unattractive?

Adam B.

What can you say about an organization that appoints Libya to head human rights, and Zimbabwe to head economic development? It's a sick joke. Worse, Western lefties like Clare Short keep on opining about its "moral legitimacy." Grotesque.

Archie

Frank Pulley:

No!

Verity

Anne Leroux - You and me both. The only thing I can think of is, it's protection money.

Frank Pulley's EM - I find your gloating over some besting of the United States that exists only in what we good naturedly refer to as your "brain" deeply offensive.

As I also find nauseating and contemptible the thuggish hijacking of a name someone else has established over the course of a few years posting literate and thoughtful comments. I will be writing to Pete about this later this morning. Parasites should not be permitted to ride on the backs of those with established repuations.

How much time have you spent in the US, by the way, to assure us all that it is a declining power? Last time I was was there, it was richer, more energetic and more confident than ever. Right now, in Houston after Hurricane Ike, they have TWENTY THOUSAND linemen lent by other lighting and power companies - some from as far away as California (around 1,500 miles) - and their trucks and equipment, restoring power to 2.6m Houstonians. Every one of them looks spruce in the uniforms of their own companies, freshly ironed, creases in their trousers - which tells us there is a vast, intelligently ordered organisiation behind taking care of these men while they're being lent to Houston, and the city government hasn't spared the horses.

Field writes: "We need a World Alliance for free and fair trade; mutual defence; energy independence; economic development; and cultural interchange."

This is thinking directly out of the 1940s. These quasi-governing, non-elected bodies running on patronage are part of the problem. We should trash every single multi-national body in the world with the exception of NATO.

Jose Garcia, I hope you won't be offended if I kindly point a couple of things out to you. One - "as every other country in Asia?" As in Japan? As in S Korea? As in Singapore? As in Malaysia? What's that leaking out of your left ear? Your brain? Have you ever been to Asia? You would be sick with envy.

Second, Indian legal and legislative infrastructure is solid. As India becomes ever richer - and a recent survey of shopping habits in Asia demonstrated that Indians are by far the biggest spenders, and quickest on the draw with their cedit cards, in all of Asia - little children searching the gutters for a dropped coin will die out. It's already illegal. I didn't see any signs of child labour in India. There may be some, and the arguments for it as a temporary measure are inarguable. I can't be bothered to rehearse them all here. Can I hear (very briefly) your arguments for India being "biased", please? I take it you're not familiar with the Indian Constitution?

EUSSR Go Home - the UN and the EUSSR are run by identical mindsets. That's why they have to go.

Verity

Pete Hoskin - Here is what happens when this site allows people to hijack names. Something posing with a leaden sense of humour as Frank Pulley's Ethnic Minorifices has been taken seriously by Archie.

Archie
September 19th, 2008 1:21pm
Frank Pulley:

No!

This Archie clearly didn't understand that he was addressing an imposter.

Allowing ticks to ride on the backs of established posters is grossly unjust.

jose garcia

The US contributes i read about 40% of the whole budget of the UN.

imagine if they actually did something about that
1 vote = 1$

;)

pete woodhouse

Frank Pulley tells us that the USA is a declining power. While he's at it, could he also tell us tomorrow's winning lottery numbers!

William

I'm not sure what the western failure is in the Balkans. Could it possibly be that we supported an islamofascist state in Bosnia (Bin Laden was on our side after all as was Abu Hamza and other notable jihadis from around the world, fully backed by an unholy alliance of Iran and Saudi Arabia with our full knowledge and the complicity of a howling islamophilic media). And the mafia state of Kosovo led by Hashim Thaci who headed the formerly listed terrorist outfit UCK/KLA (until Clinton decided to go with the vox pop created by media luvvies with no knowledge of the area or its history.
You get what you pay for.

William

I have always been under the impression that the British government and the west did get what it wanted in the Balkans. After all, our ally in two world wars was crushed and forced to hand over part of its territory to Albanian muslims in the south and Bosnian muslims to the north. What greater UN victory could there be?

William

What's wrong with you guys? Is the truth too much for the mushrooms of Britain to take do you think?
Why no likey likey?

Verity

Pete Woodhouse, who isn't really paying close attention, writes: "Frank Pulley tells us that the USA is a declining power." And then asks for lottery numbers.

That post was written by a tick who sucks the blood of other people's identities. This little blood sucker calls itself Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices
September 18th, 2008 6:23pm

Well, despite the plodding humour, he certainly seems to have fooled you. I have some winning lottery numbers for you. Please send £500 c/o Pete Hoskins of this parish, as proof of your good faith, and I will gladly forward them to you.

field

The democracies certainly should reduce funding to the UN. Let the dictatorships carry more of the strain and let the World Alliance benefit from diverted resources.

Verity

Field, let the dictatorships and garbage countries pay for it entirely! We can get out and have NATO as the only multilateral organisation we're committed to, and they can have all the dross. They've got sufficient oil billions to keep it afloat. Somalia or somewhere might be happy to accommodate a new HQ.

Meanwhile, the Anglosphere would cleave to our own.

Mark Solomon

Verity - I agree with every word you say - except one - you shamefully included Chile in the list of hateful countries and no one has yet picked you up on it. Chile is a democracy, the most advanced country in South America due to implementation of 'Thatcherite' policies when it was a dictatorship and continued ever since. It is a wonderful place, with low crime, things that work and a monument to western capitalism and free markets, not having fallen for the quasi-Socialist populism that has afflicted every other country in the region at one time or another and accounts for them all being disasters, apart from Chile! An apology is in order! :-)

The UN should simply be put to sleep - it served its purpose from 1942 to 1955 but ever since then has been living on borrowed time. McCain is so right about seeking alternatives.

BJ

So the UN has the temerity to consider Serbia's complaint about the theft of Kosovo. I recall Melanie herself criticising the recognition of "independence" of Kosovo at the time.

Like it or ot the UN is not a tool of the West.

josse garcia

To Verity.

you are taking a minor comment very seriously, i am just pointing out some of the issues of the developing world, you see a lot in "indian democracy",
i see a society based in "chastes" or "family history"
where being from the wrong one can hamper you socially irreversibly.

massive overpopulation/corruption and contamination.

i agree the "all ASIA" wording was wrong, but to be honest this was supposed to be a little comment to your article not a full rebuttal.

my point is if i was rich and wanted to retire india would be one of the last places in asia i would chose.
i dont even like the food......

"Second, Indian legal and legislative infrastructure is solid. As India becomes ever richer - and a recent survey of shopping habits in Asia demonstrated that Indians are by far the biggest spenders, and quickest on the draw with their cedit cards, in all of Asia - little children searching the gutters for a dropped coin will die out. It's already illegal. I didn't see any signs of child labour in India. There may be some, and the arguments for it as a temporary measure are inarguable. I can't be bothered to rehearse them all here. Can I hear (very briefly) your arguments for India being "biased", please? I take it you're not familiar with the Indian Constitution? "

Pete Hoskin

To avoid confusion, any comments made under the name "Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices" - or, indeed, under any name which knowlingly incorporates that of another poster - will not be approved.

Ronnie

Yes Verity, there would only be NATO, a military block. Of course we would be Airstrip One.

Have you had the opportunity to read 1984? Or is it that you think Orwell created a blueprint for the future rather than a warning?

Are you a sleeping fasco-militist entryist? Who were your mentors? I think we have a right to know.

Jack Thursby

Verity:"Meanwhile, the Anglosphere would cleave to our own."
Does that include Mexico or wherever it is you are refugee now?

"dictatorships and garbage countries"
Are these mutually exclusive? Would be most interested to see your list of garbage countries that are not dictatorships.

The UN is an expensive and corrupt waste of time. The fact that nobody has flown a plane into it is a testament to its Islamic bias.

leo solomon

Many of the democracies referred to as possible components for a new union prefer to stick their hands out, for lucrative trade deals with their enemies,and not their necks.Merkel,for instance, talks tough then,already Iran's biggest trading partner, increases trade with the object of her tough talk and send a wet noodle to afghanistan -to do what?Japan and Korea also send troops with the caveat that they are not to be put in harms way.

Verity

Mark Solomon - You are absolutely right, and thank you for pulling me up. I meant to write Venezuela and for some reason, Chile popped into my head. Venezuela is the only dictatorship in S America and I was absolutely wrong to write Chile. I stand corrected.

Jose Garcia, it's OK; you won't get an opportunity to retire in India. They don't let foreigners buy property. They unashamedly keep their turf for themselves.

The Indians made their constitution for themselves and their own circumstances, not the rest of the world.

You've got a Spanish name (if it's a reflection of your real name) and you don't like Indian food! Oh, that's wonderful! The most unappetising food in the world comes from Spanish related countries.
India is packed with exceptionally intelligent and energetic people and they are coming along at a clip. Why not save your scorn for the dross that's still swilling around the African continent, the richest continent on our planet in terms of agricultural land and minerals and the beneficiary of hundreds of billions of dollars in totally wasted aid? We could have just have pissed this money down the sewers ourselves and saved ourselves the bother of sitting on all those pointless committee and writing all those pointless reports and signing all those pointless agreement.

The UN is a malign construct and has to be surgically removed from the West. The rest of them can do what they like with it, but our name should not be affixed to another "treaty" or agreement.

At a guess, this edict would be endorsed by around 85% of the electorates in the democracies (whose wages finance this scam).

In its stead, perhaps the BBC could run a Comedy day with every unfunny alternate comedian in Britain donating his or her "talent" to finance a needy dictators fund.

Verity

Jack Thursby - Mexico's a member of NAFTA, but that doesn't make it a member of the Anglosphere. So, no, of course not. Obviously, the Anglosphere isn't a straitjacket. Members can make treaties and trade arrangements with whatever countries they deem would further their own national interest. Key words: national interest. Not one-worlderism.

"Refugee" ... where did you come up with this provincial little thoughtlet?

r.krishan

a foolish scholar learnt magical powers and brought to life a dead tiger ,which ate him up. west is like the scholar.

Andy Gill

Max, you're dead right about Arafat. They thought that his terrorism would only be a problem for the Jews. Now it has infected the whole planet.

Andy Gill

The answer is simple. Stop EU and US funding of this morally bankrupt body.

Verity

Andy Gill - if you expect the EU to act, I have a bridge over the Thames to which I own clear title and which I would like to sell you.

The United States, Britain, Oz, and the rest of the Anglosphere need to act independently and hand in their letters of resignation. What the EU does is their business. We will never find he EUSSR in accordance with our own notions of free trade, self-reliance and personal liberty.

Jack Thursby

Verity: "Refugee ... where did you come up with this provincial little thoughtlet?"

The thoughtlet occurred during the course of some research. It was of someone with only that which they could carry (plus cats!) on the TGV to CDG and then outward bound. To be specific, it was your post on Sammy's July 6th 2004. That was quite a tour de force! I particulary liked "lawless but overgoverned," but even so I was disappointed to read that the 'pistol packing' Verity had been run out of town by Blair and his gang of 'former' marxists.

I suppose "escapee" would have been more appropriate. However the thought occurs as to why, having escaped, you are still interested in what happens to the "lifers" that remain in Gordon's Gulag.

I have always thought that the national interest is dependent upon reciprocal arrangements. Sadly, our leaders give everything away and demand little or nothing in return.

jose garcia, stuck in the uk

"You've got a Spanish name (if it's a reflection of your real name) and you don't like Indian food! Oh, that's wonderful! The most unappetising food in the world comes from Spanish related countries."

true , true, but also some of the best cuisine in the world comes from spain.

the problem with spanish related countries is a lot of them are very poor (southamerica).

so they eat anything.

but if you go to a decent restaurant for £20 pp you can eat really nice stuff ,

also we are specialists in cured meats and cheese.

plus a few desserts (cakes) so elaborate and tasty that you could drop dead on the spot of overpleasure.

probably the best dish i know is local to my spanidh region of valencia, is called PAELLA,

the best one is shellfish paella, is basically rice slow cooked with vegetables and shelfish,

actually my main shock when i left spain is nobody cooks rice anywhere is just plain rice with no taste (and no a few tomato sauce to mix it with is not the same....)

ohh the memories......

Verity

Jack Thursby - What a diligent researcher you are! Feverishly researching that most ephemeral (after the spoken word) means of communication: Blogs.

No, I didn't leave with only that which I could carry. My shipment followed by sea freight, as is normal with international moves.

I actually kept my house in France for quite some time before I was sure I didn't intend going back to the EUSSR.

Why do I still care about Britain? The betrayal of my ancestors breaks my heart.

john doe

jose garcia: Just to stay on the Iberian culinary theme for light relief. What about queso manchego?...jamon serrano?...creme catalan?...salmorejo?. All very yummy indeed!

Jack Thursby

Verity - I would hardly call two or three well chosen words keyed into google either diligent of feverish. It is interesting how many expats there are who find they cannot cut the final string. I dunno about blogs and blog comments being that ephemeral as there's stuff out there that goes back to when Al Gore invented the internet!

MP's blog is one of the more entertaining around.

Verity

Jose Garcia, agreeing with me that Hispanic food is dire, writes: the problem with spanish related countries is a lot of them are very poor (southamerica)."

Like India's not? For 5,000 years, struggling for survival and the best and most nutritious cuisine known to man. (Food from some regions of China, ditto. Ditto Nonya food from the Straits of Malacca. All poor people.)

"but if you go to a decent restaurant for £20 pp you can eat really nice stuff ," At that price, I'd want it served by Brad Pitt in cute shorts.

"also we are specialists in cured meats and cheese." Ah yes, those renowned Spanish cheeses ... uh .... it's on the tip of my tongue ... uh, remind me again?

Argentina is not poor, by the way. Neither are several other Latino countries. Mexico's not poor.

Brita

Jack Thursby:

Ex-Pat is such a post-mod, decon, marxist, lying, concept!

The old way always was: Brits are Brits and Home is Home; and it used to be that no place on earth could compare.

Yes. Exile is hard to take, whether or not it's self-imposed. And, this pernicious euSSR porkie: that you're no longer who you are just because you're not at Home - well, that's just another bar on the exile grid.

It's a nasty bar; but it doesn't work because of snide and hurtful remarks. It works because the euSSR is changing Home so horribly that we can't stand what they're making of it; furthermore, we will not and cannot participate in the destruction. So we fight however we can from wherever we are: and maybe, just maybe, we can come Home one day and/or do something to restore what we love so much.

Ann

"The fact that it is sanctified by the west as having more legitimacy than individual nations"

Well, it doesn't. It's a voluntary club. Those who think that it's political resolutions are 'international law' are idiots who don't understand the concept of law and of sovereignty.

Ann

"The most unappetising food in the world comes from Spanish related countries"

What a disgusting, racist comment.

Jack Thursby

Brita - Agreed, ExPat is a grotty term but marxist? Exile could now be construed as too self-serving and fugitive possibly too criminal. How about emigrant?

People emigrate for all sorts of reasons and I really can appreciate that alienation is one of them. This is definitely no longer the country I grew up in. I'm not very happy about the decline but in the gerrymandered charade that our democracy has become a vote every 4 or 5 years doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

When you say that you are 'fighting however you can' what exactly does this involve?

logdon

Ann
September 22nd, 2008 9:12am
"The most unappetising food in the world comes from Spanish related countries"

What a disgusting, racist comment.

Shouldn't that be wacist? I refer to Student Grant, current Viz, 179 October where the whole hollow edifice is treated with the satire it deserves. Grant's, ' I didn't say the N-word, I just said 'the N-word'. I only said 'the N-word' because I didn't want to say the N-word, sums it all up perfectly.

logdon

I refer you to Robert Spencer....

"Ahmadinejad isn't really an ayatollah, of course. And the UN isn't really a peacekeeping body. My column in Human Events today:

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- the Izod Ayatollah -- is coming back to New York to address the UN General Assembly today. If the United Nations today bore even the remotest resemblance to the international peacekeeping body it was founded to be, the line to denounce him would snake around the block, and Ahmadinejad would be arrested as soon as he set foot in New York. In fact, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem has called for just that: it is preparing a petition for the UN Secretary-General, calling for the Iranian Thug-in-Chief’s arrest and indictment on charges of inciting genocide against Israel.
But the visiting Iranian president can’t be arrested: he’s “legitimized” by Iran’s UN membership, and the UN Treaty prevents his detention.

And, of course, in the run-up to Ahmadinejad’s visit, the hard Left is planning to honor him. The perpetually-outraged women of Code Pink are planning a protest -- against George W. Bush, of course. The UN General Assembly’s new president, leftist priest and old Sandinista Miguel d’Escoto, will clink glasses with Ahmadinejad at a dinner in his honor hosted by five American liberal Christian organizations, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quaker United Nations Office, the World Council of Churches, Religions for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee.

Hillary Clinton and a coalition of Jewish groups demonstrated the tenacity of partisan politics even in the face of the prospect of nuclear genocide from Iran: first Clinton declined to attend a rally protesting Ahmadinejad’s UN appearance when she found out Sarah Palin would be there, and then the Jewish groups hosting the rally disinvited Palin.

Our national unity in the face of the threat from Iran must have the mullahs quaking.

In light of his many belligerent statements, frequently demonstrating genocidal intent, it is appalling that the UN would once again allow Ahmadinejad a platform, and shameful that d’Escoto and the rest would welcome him rather than denouncing him. Ahmadinejad has boasted that “the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come.” During Israel’s incursion against Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006, he declared, “The Islamic umma [community] will not allow its historic enemy [Israel] to live in its heartland.” Israel’s end is near, he said: “There is no doubt that the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot [Israel] from the face of the Islamic world.” He has declared that “the Zionist regime is counterfeit and illegitimate and cannot survive.”

His genocidal statements have gone beyond Israel. At the “World Without Zionism” conference held in Tehran in October 2005, as the crowd chanted “death to Israel, death to America, death to England,” the Iranian President again recalled Khomeini’s words: “Once, his eminency Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini stated that the illegal regime of the Pahlavis must go, and it happened. Then he said the Soviet empire would disappear, and it happened. He also said that this evil man Saddam [Hussein] must be punished, and we see that he is under trial in his country. His eminency also said that the occupation regime of Qods [Jerusalem, or Israel] must be wiped off from the map of the world, and with the help of the Almighty, we shall soon experience a world without America and Zionism, notwithstanding those who doubt.”

Ahmadinejad has threatened Iran’s foes with nuclear action: “Today, the Iranian people is the owner of nuclear technology. Those who want to talk with our people should know what people they are talking to. If some believe they can keep talking to the Iranian people in the language of threats and aggressiveness, they should know that they are making a bitter mistake. If they have not realized this by now, they soon will, but then it will be too late. Then they will realize that they are facing a vigilant, proud people.”

Last July, he crowed that “the big powers are going down. They have come to the end of their power, and the world is on the verge of entering a new, promising era.”

The “new, promising era” that Ahmadinejad envisions features a dominant Iran and a beaten, subservient America, as he himself explained in August 2006: “If you want to have good relations with the Iranian people in the future, you should acknowledge the right and the might of the Iranian people, and you should bow and surrender to the might of the Iranian people. If you do not accept this, the Iranian people will force you to bow and surrender.”

It doesn’t look as if force will be needed. The UN General Assembly is lining up now to do just that.

FP's effnik minorifices

Have Peter Hoskin and the Spectator lost their moral bearings?

It's okay for Frank Pulley to use phrases like “effnik minorificies”. Okay for Verity to refer to immigrants as “Stone Agers” and okay for people from one ethnic group to write that people from another that they have “prejudice in their genes” All comments waived through by Hoskin and published without a blush. They're fine.

No what's not fine is to play it back. To remind their authors (and everyone else) just how nasty some of these people are. For doing so I am apparently “nauseating”, “contemptible”, “thuggish”, a “parasite”, no longer a person but a “something”, and a “tick” (all comments made above).

And it seems I am banned from posting as “Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices” To avoid confusion, Hoskin claims.

Mr Hoskin do you really think anyone is going to suppose that “Frank Pulley” has suddenly started posting as “Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices”? Why on earth would he do so?

I guess to think he might, you'd have to think “effnik minorifices” was an entirely neutral phrase, or worse something to take pride in.

Personally I find it pretty offensive.

Pete Hoskin

FP's effnik minorifices: I can assure you that I wasn't coming down on either side of the wider argument when I asked you to stop posting under the name "Frank Pulley's effnik minorifices".

Truth is, we just can't allow people to play around with other reader's user-names. It certainly creates the potential for confusion, and there's an argument - in this case - that it has already (see some of the above comments).

Always feel free to contact me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk if you have any concerns or feel that your posts aren't getting through.

Verity

FP's Effnick Minorifices writes: "Personally I find it pretty offensive."

So what?

Ronnie

Attagirl Verity, never knowingly inoffensive.

Verity

In a free country, there is freedom of speech. You can speak freely (not in Britain, although it used to be free) but you take the consequences.

This constant monitoring of oneself that the British seem to engage in today is cowardice and has been brought into being by the thought fascism of the left. The left are not particularly sensitive to "minorities" or "gays", but they're a handy weapon. Like the Islamic immigrants. One more tool to wrest control away from the citizen and award it to the government.

Verity

I meant to add that none of this could have been accomplished without one monolithic, all powerful broadcasting arm.

Ronnie

Verity, I agree with you 100% about speaking freely and taking the consequencies.

I broadly agree with you about the BBC but probably for different reasons. I think they are gutless in the face of government pressure on important occasions.

However, I also think that far fewer people now watch or listen to the BBC than you imagine. There seems to be endless choice in broadcasting of all kinds. While the BBC remains monolithic in its structures, it is only one of many bradcasters of all shapes and sizes, most of whom in my opinion, turn out pap.

Verity

I'd like to point out, for those who don't know, that you can say anything you like in the United States (obviously, save threatening someone with physical harm). But you can stand there and insult them, or talk in a loud voice so the object of your derision overhears you, and there is no legal penalty to pay because there are no laws against free speech.

Of course, there may be consequences other than legal. As in the person you've insulted with a racial or national slur smashing your nose in for you. But legally, there is no control over citizens' right to freedom of expression.

Ronnie

Yes, and that is why, if you look at webcams in Time Square, you see numerous grey rain-coated individuals standing on the sidewalk yelling abuse at innocent passers-by.

(I apologise, I couldn't help it.)

E Johnson

As a matter of fact, soft power encourages the more prickly type. In this one respect, I must begrudgingly credit Mr. Obama. In word he strikes a Euro mandarin chord. In deed one suspects he'll be far more like Hugo Chavez. Saul Alinsky's Lucifer personified armed with a nuclear arsenal. That should be fun for all concerned.

Verity

E Johnson writes: "That should be fun for all concerned."

In what sense? Obama is one of the most drab, un-fun candidates ever to run for the presidency. I include Grover Cleveland in this assessment.

He's boring. He's without a history. He has never said anything spontaneously funny. In fact, he never says anything spontaneous at all ... He can read a script, but he can't think on his feet.

I want a president who can think on his/her feet.

Not Even Likely

The UN is the world's biggest aid donor? You mean that the aid of 27 member states combined is larger than the donated aid of any other single country? You don't say!

Carolyn

If soft power is beginning to be realized as having failings, or failed, then, the strategy of handling Iran with diplomacy and sanctions crafted to be skirted by whatever EU country, E.Asian, or Russia, or the US, finds it convenient, must be admitted to be dead. Time? Now.
Will someone let Obama know?
Also inform him he is supposed to be an American, running for the US Presidency, NOT trying to please and make policy for any other country but the US.
Brussels and NY remain because of the convenience and easy access long established for those who play the "diplomats' for graft, corruption, and unlimited expense accounts.Otherwise, each would have to get a real job, think, produce ,and be accountable.
Obama in the meantime wants to pass the sole bill he has initiated, the Global Tax Plan.
The media and the Dems want to promote Obama as brilliant!He isn't , never was, and is so out-of-touch with any and all realities, he would be an unmitigated disaster.

Shy Guy

Did you see what the UN did to Bush yesterday, after he finished his speach?