Winners and Losers Amidst the United Nations Hijinks
September 23rd 2008 23:28
Well it is finally that time. Kevin Rudd has made it to New York in time for the event he risked taking a big political hit for on the domestic front. New York is a hive of activity today as world leaders converge on New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, where world leaders from all countries have the opportunity to address the group on whatever issue they wish. Amongst them all is our little Kevin, seating at his bench behind Zambia and across the aisle from the delegation from Zimbabwe. He hasn’t had the opportunity to speak yet, but I am already taking bets on whether or not he will attempt to use several different languages throughout the speech, effectively showing off his linguistic skills and making the poor United Nations translators heads explode. I do not expect anything less from the great Chairman Rudd!
In all seriousness though, Kevin has to make this speech a good one if he wants to make an impact. The UN is generally used by smaller or more radical countries as a launching pad for vitriolic speeches that dominate the news cycle. This is the venue where Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez insisted that George W. Bush was the devil, after all. And it is the location where, this year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has gone on one of his usual tangents which had the basic point that the ‘American Empire’ is at the end of the road. Ahmadinejad blames all the woes of the world on a Zionist regime that is rapidly sliding back into the cesspool of its own creation. So the guy denies the Holocaust happened, but he believes in a massive Zionist conspiracy and speaks in terms of giant metaphorical cesspools? Right, I’m glad that we got that cleared up.
One could say this was a direct response to President Bush’s speech earlier in the day. Bush had used his General Assembly speech to attack countries like Iran and North Korea for continuing to pursue nuclear ambitions. He called for the world to keep an eye on them, obviously referring to the fact that by the time this event comes around next year he will not be there to keep an eye on them himself. Bush has always been rather straight to the point when it comes to calling out nations that he feels are doing the wrong thing. It is actually one of his strengths that he doesn’t mask his opinions in political rhetoric. He is a straight shooter that says, flat-out, if these countries continue to develop nuclear weaponry the rest of the world will be sunk into a new cold war with nations that are hostile to a large proportion of the rest of the world.
While these two powers face off against each other, under the rules of civility that are usually found in United Nations summits, there are other things going on behind the scenes of the United Nations. Having that many different world leaders in the country is like nirvana for the Presidential campaign, and you would imagine that both teams would be as anxious as possible to get as many photo opportunities with the leaders to improve their foreign policy clout. Well, it is not as you might think. Barack Obama is staying well away from New York City. He has gone into debate camp, preparing for the debate on national security and defence with John McCain on Friday night. Maybe he feels like he has already done enough meet and greets with foreign leaders during his trip around the world earlier in the campaign, and so thinks it is more important to prepare. We will see if that was a good idea on Friday night.
McCain, on the other hand, has said that under no circumstances is he leaving the campaign trail to prepare for the debate, he is confident that he can do it. And so he will be taking full advantage of having world leaders in his own backyard. He will be traipsing to New York with foreign policy-deficient Sarah Palin and trying to meet with as many people as possible hoping to beef up her credentials. She is scheduled to be meeting Colombian Alvaro Uribe, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Georgian Mikhail Saakashvili, Ukrainian Viktor Yuschenko, Iraq’s Jalal Talabani, Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In the space of a few days, Palin will have increased her foreign policy experience exponentially with a series of photo opportunities that will clearly demonstrate that she has the ability to hold these high level discussions. She will also be meeting Bono, which just goes to show that she definitely is fitting into the role of a world leader already. There are not many world leaders that don’t have Bono knocking on their front door every so often.
So the General Assembly goes on, more speeches will be made, some of them dull and some of them as firey as Ahmadinejad. And hovering in the background will be Sarah Palin and John McCain, capitalising on having all these world leaders in their own backyard. International relations expert Henry Kissinger has been giving Palin a crash course in international affairs in preparation for these meetings and she will be going into them with the hopes that this will dispel some of the concerns that she is not experienced enough to perform on the world stage. Meanwhile, Obama will be locked down in debate camp, hoping that this will help him dispel the idea that national security isn’t his strong point.
Either way, when it comes to Palin’s foreign policy and Obama’s national security, by Friday night we will know if it has all paid off.
In all seriousness though, Kevin has to make this speech a good one if he wants to make an impact. The UN is generally used by smaller or more radical countries as a launching pad for vitriolic speeches that dominate the news cycle. This is the venue where Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez insisted that George W. Bush was the devil, after all. And it is the location where, this year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has gone on one of his usual tangents which had the basic point that the ‘American Empire’ is at the end of the road. Ahmadinejad blames all the woes of the world on a Zionist regime that is rapidly sliding back into the cesspool of its own creation. So the guy denies the Holocaust happened, but he believes in a massive Zionist conspiracy and speaks in terms of giant metaphorical cesspools? Right, I’m glad that we got that cleared up.
One could say this was a direct response to President Bush’s speech earlier in the day. Bush had used his General Assembly speech to attack countries like Iran and North Korea for continuing to pursue nuclear ambitions. He called for the world to keep an eye on them, obviously referring to the fact that by the time this event comes around next year he will not be there to keep an eye on them himself. Bush has always been rather straight to the point when it comes to calling out nations that he feels are doing the wrong thing. It is actually one of his strengths that he doesn’t mask his opinions in political rhetoric. He is a straight shooter that says, flat-out, if these countries continue to develop nuclear weaponry the rest of the world will be sunk into a new cold war with nations that are hostile to a large proportion of the rest of the world.
While these two powers face off against each other, under the rules of civility that are usually found in United Nations summits, there are other things going on behind the scenes of the United Nations. Having that many different world leaders in the country is like nirvana for the Presidential campaign, and you would imagine that both teams would be as anxious as possible to get as many photo opportunities with the leaders to improve their foreign policy clout. Well, it is not as you might think. Barack Obama is staying well away from New York City. He has gone into debate camp, preparing for the debate on national security and defence with John McCain on Friday night. Maybe he feels like he has already done enough meet and greets with foreign leaders during his trip around the world earlier in the campaign, and so thinks it is more important to prepare. We will see if that was a good idea on Friday night.
McCain, on the other hand, has said that under no circumstances is he leaving the campaign trail to prepare for the debate, he is confident that he can do it. And so he will be taking full advantage of having world leaders in his own backyard. He will be traipsing to New York with foreign policy-deficient Sarah Palin and trying to meet with as many people as possible hoping to beef up her credentials. She is scheduled to be meeting Colombian Alvaro Uribe, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Georgian Mikhail Saakashvili, Ukrainian Viktor Yuschenko, Iraq’s Jalal Talabani, Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In the space of a few days, Palin will have increased her foreign policy experience exponentially with a series of photo opportunities that will clearly demonstrate that she has the ability to hold these high level discussions. She will also be meeting Bono, which just goes to show that she definitely is fitting into the role of a world leader already. There are not many world leaders that don’t have Bono knocking on their front door every so often.
So the General Assembly goes on, more speeches will be made, some of them dull and some of them as firey as Ahmadinejad. And hovering in the background will be Sarah Palin and John McCain, capitalising on having all these world leaders in their own backyard. International relations expert Henry Kissinger has been giving Palin a crash course in international affairs in preparation for these meetings and she will be going into them with the hopes that this will dispel some of the concerns that she is not experienced enough to perform on the world stage. Meanwhile, Obama will be locked down in debate camp, hoping that this will help him dispel the idea that national security isn’t his strong point.
Either way, when it comes to Palin’s foreign policy and Obama’s national security, by Friday night we will know if it has all paid off.
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