{"id":2710,"date":"2004-10-07T12:52:43","date_gmt":"2004-10-07T17:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2710.html"},"modified":"2004-10-07T12:52:43","modified_gmt":"2004-10-07T17:52:43","slug":"bushs-reverse-midas-touch-extends-to-the-united-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bushs-reverse-midas-touch-extends-to-the-united-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush’s reverse-Midas touch extends to the United Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday afternoon, Bush was awfully anxious to boast<\/a> of the United Nation’s ongoing presence in Iraq.<\/p>\n

“[My opponent] wants the U.N. to be involved in those elections. Well, the U.N. is already there [in Iraq].”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A couple of hours later, as if on cue, the AP reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Two organizations representing more than 60,000 United Nations staff members urged Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to pull all U.N. staff out of Iraq because of the “unprecedented” risk to their safety and security.<\/p>\n

In a joint letter to Annan, the staff organizations cited a dramatic escalation in attacks in Iraq and said the United Nations regrettably “has become a direct target, one that is particularly prone to attacks by ruthless extremist terrorist factions.” <\/p>\n

“Just one staff member is one staff member too many in Iraq,” they said. “We … appeal to your good judgment to ensure that no further staff members be sent to Iraq and that those already deployed be instructed to leave as soon as possible.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nOf course, Bush’s rhetoric not withstanding, Annan already pulled international staff out last year after two bombings killed dozens at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. Over the summer, Annan permitted a small contingent to return, but even their presence now seems tenuous.<\/p>\n

Notice a pattern here? Bush boasts about Poland’s role in Iraq, and Poland announces it’s pulling its troops<\/a>. Bush boasts about the U.N.’s role, only to see the U.N. considering a plan to withdraw its already limited staff from Iraq altogether. Bush truly is Midas in reverse — everything he touches falls apart.<\/p>\n

(thanks for Fitz for the tip)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday afternoon, Bush was awfully anxious to boast of the United Nation’s ongoing presence in Iraq. “[My opponent] wants the U.N. to be involved in those elections. Well, the U.N. is already there [in Iraq].” A couple of hours later, as if on cue, the AP reported: Two organizations representing more than 60,000 United Nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}