President Clinton and the UN

     While most CIIS members support the U.N., we must distinguish among the various international organizations, of which there are many. Some are rather silly pretexts for silly leaders to travel to silly meetings and feed their silly egos as well as their stomachs. Among the important organizations, here is a possible ranking:
     1: NATO
     2: European Union
     3: Security Council
     4: (distant) General Assembly.
     President Clinton got a standing reception at (4) since most of the delegates there represent regimes of questionable legitimacy and morality, and themselves face terrorist or democratic threats. So, see no evil, etc. Apparently coordinated with it was the international declaration of support for Clinton from people like Gabriel Garcia Marquez known to be less than friendly to the United States.
     Clinton's speech was delivered with the usual aplomb, but it was really an uncerebral attack on CIIS Fellow Samuel Huntington, who has warned of the danger of a confrontation between the West and Islam. His repeated reassurances that the United States respects Islam was like the fox telling the crow that he loves its singing, but the reply of the crow may be to drop the bomb it has in its beak. Clinton's speech was typical of the lot, all propaganda pieces aimed at the assembly of world leaders. Despite all this, the U.N. is worthwhile, and the U.S. should pay up.

Ronald Hilton - 09/11/98