@ otto

Good for you!  I am glad to hear that there is a Flemish conservative in the Far East.  Until now, I had only 'met' Flemish and Belgian naive-lefties over there.  And, as you know, I am for true 'diversity'.

The next month wil be crucial to see if Bolton will get through the US Senate for 'confirmation'.  If you like Bolton, you would (maybe you did!) have liked Jean Kirkpatrick, Reagan's UN ambassador.  She too had her two feet firmly planted on the ground, and wasn't taken in by all the hot air and 'gentle bribes' at UN Headquarters.   The contrast with characters like Louis Michel and Karel De Gucht could make real men cry.........

Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" best describes former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar:

" If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trustyourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:"

...........................................................

"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

As one looks around Europe and those in power, true men are sorely missing... Well done, well spoken, Don José!

______________________________________________ 

Freedom isn't just the right to do as one pleases, freedom carries responsibility and maintaining freedom is a never ending job.

@ marcfrans

Marc,

Otto is a Flemish conservative with a Belgian passport living somewhere in the Far East.

He thinks the UN is merely an ineffectual expensive counterproductive talking shop that does more harm than good. Anyone who stands up and will be counted denouncing Islamofacism, preferably with Churchillian courage, is Otto's hero. Otto secretely admires John Bolton.

Best,
Otto 

@ oiznop

1) I doubt that 'Otto' is Spanish, nor in Spain.   And, surely, you should know that there is more than 1 person in Spain with "common sense".

2) As usual, the 'Kapitein' represents a mixed bag of good and bad ideas.  His realisation that the UN is "ineffectual" and merely a "forum" are signs of common sense.  But his notion that the UN "helps to stabilize the global balance" is nonsense and rooted in his shortsighted anti-americanism.  In fact, the UN does mightily contribute to further destabilize global politics by (1) frequently 'legitimising' bad behavior, (2) by failing to enforce common and consistent standards, and above all (3) by feeding dangerous illusions in the west.  For the naive-left, which rules Europe today (and may soon again rule the USA), the UN mistakenly represents 'international law'.  This is, of course, a dangerous and naive notion, because true "law" (in a democratic sense) needs to be 'certain' (in its implementation) and 'uniform' (in its application).  It follows that the UN, as presently structured, helps to undermine western resolve to defend freedom and true 'law' in the world, to be replaced by arbitary 'fake law'.  

Go Switzerland! Go Aznar! Grow a pair Germany! Get with the programme and have at them British police!

I would insult the UN, but of course the African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian lobbies want to continue to export their demographic power to Europe. Some Conservatives have argued that the UN is ineffectual (e.g. Darfur, Hizbullah). But I regard the UN as a forum, nothing more; if it were any more effectual, it would be the embryo of a world government, something I am wholeheartedly against. I think we need the UN in order to stabilize the world and keep channels of communication open, but I wouldn't want to see run by anyone other than its more powerful members. Ultimately, the UN helps stabilize the global balance of military, economic, and political power - nothing more. 

Aznar, my hero :)