Claudia Rosett, the Wall Street Journal's columnist extraordinaire, sums it up very nicely in her latest column. Read the whole thing, but here's her conclusion:
In presenting his grand soufflé of a reform plan, Mr. Annan promised to work hard. We now face months of leaks about the latest in Mr. Annan's personal telephone diplomacy, leading up to his reform jamboree this September in New York. While this goes on, it would be useful to keep in mind that the real push for a better world on Mr. Annan's watch has come not from the U.N. but from a Bush administration that Mr. Annan has done plenty to thwart and revile. Mr. Annan includes high-sounding words in his report about U.N. "support" for elections in Iraq. They ring hollow when you consider that had Mr. Annan and the U.N. prevailed instead of Mr. Bush, Iraqis would still be living under Saddam (and the U.N. would still be running the rotten Oil for Food program).
How to reform the U.N. is a big question, in need of real debate and workable proposals from some quarter. What we got from Mr. Annan as he presented this latest menu for U.N. improvement was his warning that no one should pick and choose among his proposals "a la carte." Great. If he really wants all or nothing, the next move is to toss this report, and start looking for a secretary-general who can get it right.
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