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Loading... Interventions: A Life in War and Peaceby Kofi Annan
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With eloquence and immediacy, Annan writes about the highs and lows of his years at the United Nations: from shuttle-diplomacy during crises such as Kosovo, Lebanon and Israel-Palestine to the wrenching battles over the Iraq War to the creation of the landmark Responsibility to Protect doctrine. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)341.23092Social sciences Law Law of nations International community The United NationsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Look back on the history of the World through the period from the sixteenth to the mid twentieth century and you will find Europe educating the poor savages of Africa, America, Australia and Asia at the barrel end of a gun. There was a genuine belief that domination by mainly Britain, France or Russia, with a little help from Spain, Portugal and Germany, would civilise the ignorant savages of other continents. Too late, we have realised the error of our ways and now, we do not have the power to stand up to the United States who, having once been in the strange place of part exerting and part suffering this patronising oppression, now dish it out with gay abandon.
Nobody can really believe that the Western Alliance had authority to invade Iraq, or that the many thousands of deaths have achieved any increase in World security. Guantanamo Bay and the overt use of torture by America but with implicit British agreement was, and still is, an absolute disgrace: and I say that as a supporter of Tony Blair! Kofi does not take sides, he tries to build bridges, even whilst being steam-rollered by those who see no one's view but their own. I was not there when these decisions were made so, I can only read the account of George Bush, Tony Blair and Kofi Annan and give credence to the most believable version. To my mind, this is it. For that alone, this book is well worth reading - and there is so much more. ( )