Stardate 20040530.2253

(On Screen): Writing from South Africa, someone named S'thembiso Sangweni complains about President Bush in terms which are very familiar.

When our own homegrown voice of reason, Nelson Mandela, warned before the invasion of Iraq that US President George W Bush should be reined in because he was "a president who can't think", the world and the UN Security Council - toothless against the White House - looked the other way.

Now the American promise to bring the good life to the Iraqi people has been reduced to car bombs, thick black smoke from oil centres and pictures showing members of American and other allied forces ridiculing and imposing their will on those who see the world differently from them.

What a novel perspective! How unusual and fresh!

He concludes:

Bush must be ordered back to base, or else UN secretary-general Kofi Annan will remain just a man who is good at poetic speeches but thin on poetic justice.

Ordered? Who exactly is going to issue this order to the government of the United States? And what, exactly, will they do if we tell them to take a hike?

I have a telegram for Mr. Sangweni: the difference between a request and an order is that there are consequences for disobeying an order. You may request that we "return to base", and we'll take it under advisement. But if you think you can order us to do such a thing, then you are full of yourself. (Or full of something else.)

Kofi Annan is not as described by Sangweni. Rather, he is a man whose son is deeply implicated in the biggest embezzlement scandal of all time, and he is a man who leads an organization which needs the US to remain a member (and to contribute nearly a quarter of its operating funding) a hell of a lot more than the US needs to be a member.

The UN's reputation in the US is near an all time low, and a decision by our government to leave it would be very popular. We are tired of being lectured by self-important pipsqueaks. If the UN orders the US to do anything, we're out of there.

And it will be out of here. New York City has better use for that land. (It could, for instance, better serve the city as a garbage dump. It would certainly smell better.)

Mice really think that cats should wear bells. But who shall give the order to the cat? And what shall they do if the cat refuses?

Update 20040531: Richard responds from South Africa.