United Dictators

Many of us have thought for years that the UN was, at its base, a way for dictators to improve their image and diplomats to make a comfortable living doing nothing. It's procrastination on steriods at its best, defense of brutality at its worst.

Not that the mess such an organization causes isn't corrupting in and of itself. But with news coming out daily about the top-to-bottom scandal in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program, the organization's viability is at stake as never before. Anyone desirous of the spread of freedom should pay particular attention to the stonewalling of the G.A.O. now occuring throughout the UN's bureaucracy. If Kofi Annan keeps his job, we'll know nothing's going to change.