It has been an interesting couple days in the UN General Assembly, as has the media coverage of it. After suffering through 96 minutes of drivel from Muammar Gaddafi, I was hard pressed to find out what nations, if any, demonstrated their approval/disapproval by leaving the chamber. A tradition of that body since its inception. Where Gaddafi is concerned, I can’t find any evidence that the US delegation walked out.
When Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke his insane bit, the US delegation did walk out. And I share Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s frustration with the UN for giving Ahmadinejad a platform, and with the delegations there that sat to listen to him deny the Holocaust.
“To those who gave this Holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people. … Have you no shame? Have you no decency?”
The media coverage of the walkout is remarkable. German media Deutsche Welle put it this way. Canada who refused to attend the speech, and 11 delegations left the speech. According the Associated Press, Ahmadinejad spoke to a half-empty chamber. So out of 192 member states, only 12 showed their disapproval. Does that sound like a half-empty chamber to you?
The whole experience does demonstrate the ineffectiveness, if not unwillingness, of the United Nations to live up to its charter and how the media props them up.
The fact that President Obama is now head of the UN Security Council, a first for a US President, does not give me any hope that the UN will change. His ’round-the-world apology tour, like his speech to the UN General Assembly, validates that his idea of foreign relations is just like theirs. And for our sake, I hope I am wrong.
