because this news story is telling enough.
U.S. Won't Seek a Seat on the U.N. Rights Council
The United States said Thursday it would not be a candidate for the new United Nations Human Rights Council, which was approved last month by the General Assembly with Washington nearly alone in opposition....
Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, said it was a mistake for the United States to wait for future elections to run.“All key decisions about serious reform issues, from the curtailment of inappropriate bodies to whether and how countries are scrutinized, will be made in the first year,” she said.
...
Among the Republican critics who had counseled joining the panel were Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who has frequently called for Secretary General Kofi Annan to quit; Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman; and Representative Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, who is sponsor of a bill that would withhold United States dues from the United Nations.When Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, proposed a resolution on March 31 calling for an American boycott of the new council, Representative Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, another Republican detractor of the United Nations, put out a statement urging the resolution's defeat.
Human rights groups speculated that the United States was worried that revelations of abuses of detainees in Iraq and of clandestine prisons abroad had raised fears in the Bush administration that it could not get the 96 votes in the 191-member General Assembly needed for election.
“It's unfortunate that the Bush administration's disturbing human rights record means that the United States is today hardly a shoo-in for election to the council,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
The new council was approved on March 15 by a 170-to-4 vote, with Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau joining the United States in opposition.
Ok, the Marshall Islands and Palau don't really count because they are basically U.S. colonies. So basically, just Israel and the U.S.
Wexler got a shot at the Administration into the story, but had to fellate Warren Hoge to do so. Satisfactory for neither party. I didn't say that.
Robert Wexler of Florida, singled out Mr. Bolton for isolating the United States and thwarting the United Nations human rights effort.“This decision reflects the colossal diplomatic failures of Ambassador Bolton,” he said. “It's a national disgrace for America that we will not be a present in guiding and leading that council in a productive direction, and that under Mr. Bolton's leadership at the U.N. the world's single superpower cannot muster up the necessary votes to win an election.”
Tags: Guam, /torture, /Worst_President
