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A decade of failure at the UN

December 12, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

In what may be his final public speech as United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan yesterday ranted against America’s foreign policy and attacked the U.S.-led war on terror.

“It was a thinly veiled parting shot at U.S. foreign policy delivered by an embittered U.N. leader seething with self-righteous indignation and resentment,” Heritage foreign policy expert Nile Gardiner writes. “Annan’s Missouri speech will go down in history as one of the most blatant assaults on a U.S. administration by a serving U.N. official.”

What do you think of the United Nations? Click here to take our survey.

Nile Gardiner says Annan’s “departure from office has not come soon enough.” Click here for more.

Remembering Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick, who served as America’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1981 to 1985, passed away last Friday. She was a champion of international freedom, a firm defender of America’s foreign policy and a true patriot. Her influence was incalculable.

“The world is completely different now than it was in the 1980s, thanks in large part to Jeane, her ideas and her skill in making them work,” Heritage President Ed Feulner said in a statement. “In Great Britain, they call Lady Margaret Thatcher ‘the Iron Lady.’ In America, they should call Jeane Kirkpatrick ‘the Steel Lady’—U.S. steel to be exact—for rebuilding an American foreign policy that’s so strong, we still stand on it today.”

Feulner continues: “With complete support from her friend, President Ronald Reagan, she developed foreign policies that pushed back against Soviet bullying in the U.N. and across the globe. She made the United Nations more effective, less anti-American and a better instrument to deliver people their God-given right to freedom.”

In his 2004 book The March of Freedom, Feulner dedicated a full chapter to discussing Ambassador Kirkpatrick’s impact on the conservative movement. You can read that chapter online in PDF format.

Celebrating the first president

Last week, I traveled with several of my colleagues to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home. Located a few minutes outside the nation’s capital, the estate includes not only his original farmhouse and related buildings, but also the general’s tomb and a brand-new education center celebrating the virtues of the first president.

While the house and grounds were fascinating, the most interesting portion of the tour was the visit to the education center. The interactive museum allows young and old alike to learn more about the history and virtues of America’s first president. Several exhibits note Washington’s decisions to give up power—first in 1783 when he resigned as commander-in-chief and returned home, and again in 1796 when he chose not to seek a third term as president. Another discussed Washington’s role at the Constitutional Convention, and an interactive video highlighted his Revolutionary War leadership. There was even a display of his false teeth.

“Mount Vernon is extremely important, not just for revitalizing Washington’s role in American history but also for focusing America on the contributions and character of Washington and the other Founders,” said Matthew Spalding, who directs Heritage’s Center for American Studies and serves on the Board of Academic Advisors at Mount Vernon. “More Americans—especially school children—visit Mount Vernon than any other historical site in the United States, which provides a wonderful opportunity to teach them about our past and the importance of our greatest leaders—and our greatest principles.”

Click here to find out how a private charity helps keep Washington’s principles alive.

Heritage launches television studio

Last week, The Heritage Foundation began broadcasting from its brand-new state of the art-television studio. Thanks to the generous support of Heritage members Mr. and Mrs. George Elmore, The Heritage Foundation’s policy experts can now more easily spread conservative ideas and debunk liberal myths on national and local television broadcasts.

This is a truly important development for Heritage and the conservative movement. Now, whenever news breaks, The Heritage Foundation will be able to get its experts on the air quickly and talking common sense.

Since it launched, the studio has been used to broadcast eight live interviews—on CNN, MSNBC, Fox and even international networks. And in the next few weeks, look for online broadcasts as well, as our policy analysts discuss the issues in more depth than they can on television.

Click on the links below to watch some recent television appearances filmed live from Heritage headquarters:

In other news

  • Democrats have pledged to remove billions of dollars in special-interest earmarks from pending legislation. If true, this is good news for conservatives. Heritage will work closely with lawmakers of both parties to ensure they understand the importance of this and other moves to advance fiscal restraint.
  • After Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport removed its Christmas trees “to avoid litigation,” airline employees promptly bought replacement trees for use behind check-in counters. The airport has since restored the trees. Meanwhile, a survey of British Christmas cards finds that only one in 100 contains a religious message.
  • The dairy industry successfully lobbied for federal protections against competition from lower-priced competitors, The Washington Post reports. A dairy farmer in the Southwest had been selling milk at up to 20 cents less a gallon, which not only benefited consumers but disrupted the arcane system of government rules that keep inefficient producers afloat at taxpayer expense.
  • An article in the latest Economist (subscription-only, unfortunately) points out that Fair Trade foods and other “socially-conscious” economic schemes actually undermine the very liberal policy goals they’re intended to advance. Organic food grown without fertilizers, for example, requires more land to produce and so causes more trees to be cut down. (Via the Adam Smith Institute.)
  • Former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet has died. General Pinochet overthrew his country’s Marxist government in 1973 and ruled for 17 years.
  • It was revealed over the weekend that the US government had been tapping Princess Diana’s wireless phone before her 1997 death. One commenter on the website of Britain’s Daily Standard wonders why the US government went to such lengths to monitor celebrities when terrorists like Mohammed Atta were planning catastrophic attacks on the United States.
  • The United Nations is expected to release a report finding that global warming may not be as devastating as once feared. Meanwhile, a team of scientists has concluded that a regional nuclear war could lead to a marked cooling of the planet; one hopes environmental radicals won’t propose nuclear war as a “solution” to global warming.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.