Mark Steyn

Leave it to America

There are now calls for greater UN involvement in Iraq. That's the last thing the country needs, says Mark Steyn

issue 30 August 2003

New Hampshire

Usually in Iraq, the Westerners getting blown up are American and British soldiers. So the world’s press, lacking any local angle and not being terribly interested in the poor bloody infantry at the best of times, cuts to the chase: the death of Private Wossname is yet more evidence of what a disaster Bush has made of Iraq …bogged down …quagmire …lessons of Vietnam, etc., etc.

But the fellow who blew up the Canal Hotel left aid workers from many lands among the dead and injured, and so for once the media took time to mourn the loss of the individuals involved. Among the victims was the dapper UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. As an example of his élan, the National Post of Canada produced the following anecdote: ‘Despite heading up missions in some of the most dangerous places in the world, the debonair Mr Vieira de Mello rarely showed fear.

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