We all remember 9/11, seared in our memories as it is, most of us anyway, but my wife Sheryl reminded me tonight of some other moments that shattered our perspectives in recent years, transformed us to one degree or another. One of those was the horrific destruction the Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan by the Taliban. It was a difficult act for modern people to wrap their heads around, coming as it did from the most primitive human behavior. I post it here as a reminder of the forces that confront us, what they stand for.
Another, seemingly much smaller event, was the case of a twenty-nine year old Iraqi man, Adnan Abdul Karim Enad. You probably won’t remember the name, but you may remember him. He was the fellow who tried to clamber ‘into a UN inspector’s jeep on January 25 [2003] clutching a notebook and screaming “Save me! Save me!” in Arabic. A UN inspector sat motionless in the front seat as Iraqi guards pulled the 29-year-old man out of the car and carried him away by his arms and legs.’ The italicized quote comes from James Bone of the London Times who was shocked by the incident, as many of us were, as the man’s relatives evidently were. This marked the beginning of my disaffection with the United Nations, of my wondering which side they were really on. My confusion, and ultimately disgust, only increased when the revelations of Oil-for-Food appeared. Bone went on to describe the reaction of Hans Blix to the event:
Hans Blix, the chief UN inspector, appeared flummoxed when questioned about the case this week but said that he would consider raising it in his talks tomorrow in Baghdad.
He said the inspectors did not know the identity of the man pulled from the vehicle and were awaiting a report on the incident from the Iraqi authorities. The UN had not taken any other steps to ascertain whether the man might have been an Iraqi scientist or otherwise in possession of information he wanted to share with inspectors about Iraq’s secret weapons programmes.
“I’ve just talked to our security chief in Baghdad . . . and he said there was nothing in the booklet he seemed to be carrying,” Dr Blix said. He added that Iraqi scientists could find “more elegant ways” of approaching UN inspectors.
More elegant.
Like Blix.
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16 Comments
1. lindenen:I hate Hans Blix. I loathe him and I pity him at the same time.
Sep 23, 2004 - 9:43 pm 2. Birkel:I remember quite well watching the video released by the Taliban of their destruction of the Buddhas. I was appalled to see it and even more appalled at the lack of condemnation from the *international community*. (That is one of the most stupid expressions ever, IMO.)
As the good capitalist I am, I couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t sell all the artifacts they were destroying. There were jade buddhas crushed by hammers–hundreds of year old and priceless. But now I understand. Those people were merciless and cruel. And I hope they’re all dead.
Sep 23, 2004 - 9:58 pm 3. Patrick S Lasswell:Thanks for the reality check, Roger.
I was just getting towards the down cycle of my writing. Back up now. Thanks.
Sep 23, 2004 - 10:11 pm 4. WichitaBoy:Roger,
We visited Mt. Rushmore a couple of weeks ago and all I could think about was the Buddhas. I told my kids about them. They hadn’t heard.the story. It’s very sad. Thanks for reminding us.
You’ve been prodigious today. I salute you.
Sep 23, 2004 - 11:56 pm 5. Baggi:I tried the link above to read about the buddhas but it takes me to Amazon.com where I can purchase Old boys.
Thought you might like to fix the link.
Sep 24, 2004 - 1:31 am 6. Matt Ward:In your last comment, you pointed out how the Islamic terrorists see themselves as fighting a religious war.
Please remember that destroying the Buddhas was a religious statement, not a cultural one. Many secularists at the time (and now) rued the destruction of cultural artifacts, but couldn’t give much of a damn about the statement it made against religious pluralism.
Similarily, after April 9, 2003, the semi-looting of the Baghdad museum grabbed all the headlines, but I was most disgusted by the grabbing of essential equipment from the hospitals, which left many Iraqi patients on the edge of death.
Our priorities show themselves in what we emphasize. I doubt Afghans and Iraqis saw those two events in quite the same way as we in the West did.
A humble opinion from a former history student.
Sep 24, 2004 - 5:23 am 7. beebop:Roger,
Your comment about the young guy pulled from the UN car by Saddam’s thugs really hit home. You have a lot of contacts with mass media people; don’t you think footage of that incident would make a great commercial for a 527 group? The tag line could be Kerry feels we’d be safer with Saddam still in power, compared to the chaos today. Another commercial could be an interview with a mother or widow of a suicide bomber’s victim in Isreal, talking about how she felt when Saddam paid the family of the killer $25,000 — same tag line on the commercial.
Sep 24, 2004 - 6:53 am 8. AlanC:Roger,
Let me first say that I admire your admissions regarding your conversion from LLL to VRWC, but, I have to ask did you mean this?
” This marked the beginning of my disaffection with the United Nations,…”
Weren’t you paying attention to Rwanda? Weren’t you paying attention to the UNs feelings toward Israel?
I’ll say that until Rwanda I thought that the UN did a little good, and provided a release valve for a whole lot of nut jobs, and were a horrible megaphone for anti-Semitic / anti-Israel propaganda. But all in all, relatively harmless.
After Rwanda I saw the UN as a major part of the evil in the world, the sheep’s clothing that was hiding the wolf.
Sep 24, 2004 - 7:01 am 9. jedrury:Learn all about the UN and its botched efforts improving the lot of mankind in the writings of liberals Philip Gourevitch (”We Wish to Inform You”) and Samantha Power (”A Problem from Hell”).
No illusions, hard facts, terrifying.
Sep 24, 2004 - 7:34 am 10. Jeff_Riley:Whatever happened to Adnan Abdul Karim Enad? Surely with all the people out there, especially the Iraqi bloggers, we could attempt to find out the fate of this man. I agree with the commenter above, a 527 group should make a commercial of this, with the tag line:
If John Kerry had his way, Saddam would still be in power today, and the United Nations would have veto power on US security. It didn’t work for Adnan Abdul Karim Enad, what makes Kerry think it would work for the United States?
Sep 24, 2004 - 7:45 am 11. joe:Maybe we should replace the UN symbol’s laurel wreath (I think that’s what it is) with thorn bushes.
Corruption. Incompetence. Tyranny.
Today’s UN.
Sep 24, 2004 - 8:02 am 12. John Bono:It is sort of ironic that you got the link for the destruction of the Bamiyan statues from common dreams. I blogged a bit about how quickly their opinion of the Taliban changed.
http://www.motgs.com/archives/001386.html
All it took to change Afghanistan from “home of the taliban” to “target of unjust American bombing” was 2 hours–about the time it took for the towers to fall.
Sep 24, 2004 - 8:40 am 13. Tom Grey:The World needs a policeman; the UN doesn’t cut it. Too many others don’t honestly accept the USA; and the USA doesn’t quite want it, either.
We need an organization ready to fight for human rights against governments. A Standing Coalition of the willing.
Sep 24, 2004 - 8:52 am 14. Daniel Calto:I had a similar epiphany lately when an EU factotum, one day after the depraved massacre at Beslan, was demanding that Putin explain the erros made by Russian security forces. After a week, maybe–I’m no great fan of the anti-democratic Putin. But ont he very day of the massacre, it was almost beyond comprehension.
Sep 24, 2004 - 10:03 am 15. PeterUK:The UN is a big organisation run by little people who see themselves as the mandarins of a future world government.Judge their actions by this measure and all becomes clear.
Why should these little people,many of whom are nonentities in their own lands, rule the rest of us,who voted for Annan or Blix?
Sep 24, 2004 - 12:39 pm 16. CERDIP:Adnan Abdul Karim Enad was safe and free after Operation Iraqi Freedom
according to Amnesty International.
Amnesty International has learned that ‘Adnan ‘Abdul Karim Enad is safe and free. He and other detainees were said to have escaped from a prison in al-Ramadi, about 80 miles from Baghdad, after it was abandoned by prison guards in mid-April [2003].
Sep 25, 2004 - 9:24 am