ANNAN'S FAILINGS NO BIG DEAL

Departing UN secretary general Kofi Annan lives in a parallel UN-reality, citing as his most outstanding failures: the Iraq war; the Baghdad bombing that killed UN envoy envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello; and the Oil-for-Food scandal. UN supporters will see none of these as UN failings: the US is to blame for the Iraq war and the Baghdad bombing; and evil companies (like the Australian Wheat Board) are to blame for the Oil-for-Food debacle. According to Annan:

“I think that when historians look at the records they will draw the conclusion that, yes, there was mismanagement and there may have been several UN staff members engaged but the scandal, if any, was in the capitals and with the 2,200 companies that made a deal with Saddam behind our backs and of course I hope the historians will realize that the UN is more than oil-for-food.”

Failures directly attributable to Annan, like Darfur and sexual predation by peace-keepers, don't rate a mention. There is also the little matter of over 800,000 massacred Rwandans but that doesn't really count because Annan was only the head of peace-keeping and not yet secretary general.