More Oil For Food

Well, ABC seems to be the first of the mainstream broadcast media to pick up on this story. Of course, as to be expected from the Disney Channel, they point out Benon Sevan the U.N. Undersecretary of the program as the most prominent of those accused and pretty much give the ringleader, Kofi Annan, a free ride despite the intimate involvement of his family in the scandal (Wall Street Journal Editorial of March 18, 2004 - requires a subscription).

Andrew Sullivan seems to have just learned about the scandal, and is shocked. As usual, he has some thoughtful comments

In fact, I'm shocked that more hasn't come out yet. Saddam had a lot of people on the take in the West and the U.N. But this story is about more than a simple U.N. scandal. What it shows is what the alternatives to war against Saddam actually were: a slowly disintegrating regime, becoming ever-more Islamist in tone as it tried to cling to power; sanctions that were in effect starving kids, destroying Iraqi civil society and enriching corrupt U.N. officials and Saddam's family; and the potential of those sanctions being lifted at some point, leading to a resurgence of WMD development. We were so right to intervene. The alternatives were far, far worse.

Of course, I have been on the case for awhile, calling for Kofi Annan and his cronies to be tried as war criminals by the same tribunal that will handle Saddam's trial. April 20, 2004; March 26, 2004; March 18, 2004; March 17, 2004; January 30, 2004.