THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, June 21, 2012


9


COLD WAR SHADOWS AS SERBIA WINS A TOP UN POST UNITED NA-


by John J. Metzler Syndicated Columnist


TIONS—Shad- ows of the Cold War returned to the UN dur- ing the re- cent elections for President of the Gener- al Assembly where a previ- ously agreed


to candidate from Lithuania was challenged, and subsequently defeated, by a Russian-backed contender from Serbia. What was originally expected to be a con- sensus vote selecting a respected European Union candidate was snookered by Serbia. Clearly the United States and


many European Union countries were blindsided by the Russian proxy, the perception being how could Serbia, an internation- ally reviled country with indicted war criminals among its leader- ship just a dozen years ago, beat Lithuania, a staunch democratic member of the European Union and NATO? As one of the Baltic states oc-


cupied and later absorbed by the former Soviet Union, Lithuania was a victim many


times over from WWII from the Nazis to the communists. Thus her independence and regained sovereignty after the fall of the Soviet regime was all the more cherished. Lithuania joined the UN in 1991, a near miracle of re- gained pre-war sovereignty, and was later admitted into NATO and the European Union, the ultimate insurance policies for her defense and her prosperity. Not all in Moscow accepted this


fact. Now with the resurgence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s more pro-active political policies, the Lithuanians, who are neighbors of Russia, would be taught a stinging lesson. This was especially true since Lithuania’s candidate Ambassador Dalius Cekoulis had been openly critical of former Soviet rule. Moscow played a deliberate and


calculated game of diplomatic chess, whereby Serbia’s “moder- ate” Foreign Minister Vuk Jer- emic would become a candidate. Though Serbia’s reputation and standing is still shadowed inter- nationally by the war crimes such as Srebrenica and the aggression


of the Slobodan Milosevic regime in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, the current more moderate Ser- bian government under Boris Tadic has been wisely trying to reintegrate his once reviled coun- try back towards Europe and into becoming a “normal country.” Foreign Minister Jeremic is best


known in UN circles as Serbia’s smooth point man in periodic Security Council proceedings con- cerning Kosovo’s disputed status, the ethnic Albanian former Yu- goslav province still claimed by Belgrade. Yet just weeks before the UN


election, the Tadic government was toppled in Belgrade and a new hard-line nationalist was elected as Serbian President. Not only did this put Jeremic’s standing as Foreign Minister into question, but revived the radical images of Serbia which would not likely play well internationally. The annual election for the Gen-


eral Assembly president is usually a pro-forma event where regional groups agree to a candidate and the full UN membership approves the choice by consensus. Yet the one year post affords the presi- dent’s country not only prestige and status, but more importantly, presides over an agenda of the world body’s membership. This year was “the turn” of the Eastern European group for the top post. The Assembly President’s duties


include presiding over the UN’s important autumn debate with world leaders and marshalling votes and debate on resolutions. While most readers are familiar


with the far more powerful Secre- tary General Ban Ki- moon, Gen- eral Assembly Presidents such as the current respected Nassir al- Nasser of Qatar, or in recent years the controversial Miguel D’Escoto of Nicaragua, and Ali Treki of Libya hold lower profiles. Without question Russia has


longtime cultural, religious and political links to Serbia; Moscow has been a patron of Belgrade even during the darkest days of the Balkan wars. Putin’s align- ment with Serbia should be seen in this light as much as a diplo- matic power play by Russia’s UN delegation. But this year, the selection of


the 67th General Assembly Presi- dent came not by the expected consensus, but by the first con-


tested vote since 1990. The rare secret ballot of 184 members vot- ing, produced a quietly expected win for Jeremic with 99 votes and 85 for Cekoulis. But here’s the key to Serbia’s success. Of the 27 member Euro-


pean Union, solidarity for Lithu- ania broke and not all countries voted for their fellow member. Serbia chipped away votes from those EU countries which do not recognize Kosovo; Greece, Cyprus, See METZLER on 28


SOCIALIST OR FACIST? It bothers me a


by Thomas Sowell Syndicated Columnist


little when con- servatives call Barack Obama a “social ist.” He certainly is an enemy of the free mar- ket, and wants politicians and bureaucrats to make the fundamental


decisions about the economy. But that does not mean that he wants government ownership of the means of production, which has long been a standard definition of socialism. What President Obama has


been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: gov- ernment control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own


businesses in the private sector. Politically, it is heads-I-win when


things go right, and tails-you-lose when things go wrong. This is far preferable, from Obama’s point of view, since it gives him a variety of scapegoats for all his failed policies, without having to use President Bush as a scapegoat all the time. Government ownership of the


means of production means that politicians also own the conse- quences of their policies, and have to face responsibility when those consequences are disastrous — something that Barack Obama avoids like the plague. Thus the Obama administration


can arbitrarily force insurance companies to cover the children of their customers until the chil- dren are 26 years old. Obviously, this creates favorable publicity for President Obama. But if this and other government edicts cause insurance premiums to rise, then See SOWELL on 24


Black


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