For Want of a Whirligig

Joseph Laconte addresses the incredibly lame effort the U.N. has made in stopping the horror that is Darfur:

Perhaps better U.N. leadership would not have led to six months of fruitless negotiations with Jordan for helicopters ultimately deemed inadequate for the mission. Perhaps if the United Nations hadn't squandered billions of dollars in its Oil-for-Food scandal in Iraq, Ban wouldn't now be trolling for contributions for U.N. peacekeepers. Instead, we have the spectacle of the U.N. Secretary General begging for helicopters from states such as China--the Security Council member that arguably has done the most to block meaningful action to stop the bloodletting.

"We are at a critical point. Time is running out," Ban said last week. Ah, yes, the ticking clock: Two days later the Secretary General flew to Bali for a conference on climate change with Al Gore. The people of Darfur could wait.

Then again, Darfur might be bad, but the "earth has a fever. And the fever is rising." What could be worse the specter of "carbon summer."