Mark Steyn is relieved that the French continues to stop any UN Security Council resolution that makes for an extended UN role in Iraq. The United Nations doesn't exactly have a good track record in running real land with real people.
The UN doesn't solve problems, it manages them in perpetuity: it turns them into Les Miserables; come back two decades later and it's still running.
Even without the corruption and drugs and child-sex rings, it's not an impressive record. Any German contemplating Palestine's 'refugee' 'camps', now celebrating their golden jubilee, ought to be grateful his country enjoyed the straightforward benefits of victors' justice.
I am sure there are people in the UN system that can do good things in Iraq, but it's crucial that the UN bureocracies don't have the final say on anything important. Advise, fine. Control, no.
Considering theOil-for-palacesscandal, which is recently given the very appropriate name UNSCAM, it's pretty imperative that the UNocrats' hands are kept out of the Iraqi oil jar.
Two members of an al-Qaida cell connected to top terror master Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have been caught in Jordan with chemical weapons and poisonous gas for a planned attack that Jordanian officials say would have killed up to 20,000 people.
There is little doubt about the origin of the chemical weapons, as the trucks with explosives and WMDs were stopped just 75 miles from the Syrian border.
The discovery of the al-Qaida WMD plot is sure to renew speculation that some of Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction were hidden in Syria before the U.S. attacked in March 2003, and have now found their way into al-Qaida's hands.
Maybe a bit speculative, but it would be a scary development if true. If that is the case, it is hard to believe Syrian authorites are not involved somehow.
Two American police officers killed in Kosovo by Jordanian collegue
A Jordanian UN police officer open fired at a group of western collegues, killing two Americans before being killed himself. Ten Americans, including female officers, and one Austrian officer were reportedly wounded.
Some media reports that there may have been a discussion between the United Nations correctional officers about the Iraq war prior to the incident, but others deny there had been any contact or debate.
The dead Jordanian officer has been identified as Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali.
The incident happened at a prison close to Kosovska Mitrovica, which has been the center of ethnic tension between Serbs and Kosovars, but in this incident no locals were involved.
I am sure this will not improve the locals' conficence in the UN operation in Kosovo.
Promptly, they ordered a new opinion poll from the same pollster, Visendi, and the new result warmed their hearts:
[NLM magazine] Utsyn reports that they had repeatedly tried to learn how the question in the original survey was phrased. When they were denied an answer they carried out their own poll, in clear language: "Do you believe people can end up in hell when their life on earth is over?"
To this version 11.3 percent of the 1,577 interviewed answered yes, and the magazine trumpeted their refutation of coverage like "Fewer believe in hell" that ran in Christian daily Vårt Land.
This is still a pathetic weak response from a secularized people, and obviously not very likely to strike fear into the hearts of unbelievers. The editor of Utsyn Espen Ottesen finds some comfort in the fact that a bit of further tweaking of the question would have given an even better result:
Ottosen said the polls show how important the phrasing of a question is, and believed that they could have achieved even higher numbers.
"If we had replaced the word hell with perdition we would have had much higher numbers," Ottosen said.
"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." - Mark Twain
A Jordanian UN police officer 
