Powell is "tough" on the UN

Sec. of State Colin Powell says that Annan Must Be Held Accountable:



NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (search) must be held accountable for mismanagement of the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program, Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) told FOX News.

But Powell said the responsibility is not just Annan's to bear. The Bush administration's top diplomat also said the entire U.N. membership — particularly the Security Council, which oversaw the day-to-day management of the program — should take on some of the responsibility.



I think the US needs to be extremely tough on the UN. As Pres. Bush said when he addressed the General Assembly in November, 2002, they are at the risk of becoming irrelevant. I feel that they are an obsolete organization. The more our government condemns the UN and their miserable bureaucratic inefficiency, the better. She should not give them any slack whatsoever. I hope that Condi Rice is much tougher on them than Powell has been. I hope that she holds them accountable for every shortcoming. I hope that the US forces the UN to be more of what it claims to be, a international peace-keeping body.



On another note, I like what Powell said about the new Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas:



"I believe he understands that he now has to take a strong position, an open, vocal, clear position against terrorism," Powell said. "But more than just take a position, he has to fight against those forces within the Palestinian community that still thinks there is a role for terrorism. And if he does that, then the United States will be able to support him. And he'll find that Israel can be a partner for peace with him as well."



He is saying that Abbas needs to do what no Palestinian leader as never done, and that is cease to be a Palestinian. They are terror. They are violence. They exist on the desire that one day Israel will not exist. Powell is one of many who fails to understand the overriding agenda of the Palestinians.