Adios Annan

Well it looks like Kofi is finally going to get the boot. And what is he getting the boot for, you may be asking? Oil for food (and weapons, and terrorists, and palaces, etc)? Nope. A failure to prevent, stop, or respond to Darfur? Nope. It was much, much worse. He let some touchy-feely grab ass bureaucrat go (Oooooooooh!) . At this point I could care less about shy he's gone. Hopefully we'll get someone in there with some gumption and a decent set of values, but don't bet on it. Froggy Ruminations seems to think this is symptomatic of the UN in general (I agree): Finally it seems some amount of accountability will be held by Kofi Annan as he faces a “no confidence” vote by the staff of the UN. The sad thing is that his confidence crisis has nothing to do with his Oil For Food kickbacks or his failure to address Darfur, but it is in response to his exoneration of some UN functionary for sexual harassment charges. This is a perfect metaphor for the UN. An institution that turns a blind eye to massive international security and humanitarian issues, but acts decisively to punish grab assing. According to Say Anything, Annan's term would normally be up in 2006. Let's hope this gets him out quicker.