Obvious Pride

Why do people regard the U.N. with contempt? Well, maybe because they should.

Last week, we happened to run into Kofi Annan at a UNICEF benefit. We asked him what his greatest accomplishment had been.

With a very excited and engaged smile, he responded, "M.D.G.'s," repeating himself for emphasis before he was whisked off by an aide. For those at a loss, we'll explain. The acronym stands for Millennium Development Goals, a series of stated hopes for how the world could be made better that U.N. committees spent years haggling over. The goals are a mix of the impossible (e.g. primary-school education for all by 2015) and bland generalities (empower all women). So what Annan is telling us is that, while he stood by and did nothing during the disasters in Rwanda, Kosovo and the Sudan, blithely allowed U.N. peackeepers to rape women in Liberia and let his son and others corrupt the Oil-for-Food program, he helped some committees state series of vague hopes-and that was his main accomplishment.

Like so many at the U.N. he's so out of touch that he smiles when he tells you this.