FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama addresses the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File WASHINGTON — It was only a year ago that U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly that the world had become “more stable” as America shifted “away from perpetual war.” Now those words have been dashed against the rocky face of change whose dizzying pace has caught him looking, painted him naive and dashed his dreams of more peaceful times.
When Obama speaks at the UNGA this week he will come not as a peacemaker, but as a war leader marshaling the international community to fight the growing power of the terror army of the Islamic State (ISIL, also known as ISIS). The old battle has returned with a fresh face. Perpetual war continues.
“We’ll lead a broad coalition of nations who have a stake in this fight,” Obama said in his weekly address Saturday. “This isn’t America vs. ISIL. It’s the world vs. ISIL.”
That’s the message he will bring to the General Assembly where 193 state leaders — and Prime Minister Stephen Harper — meet this week in New York.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been working on that task since Friday meeting steadily with world leaders in what has been referred to as the diplomatic version of speed dating. He said Monday the U.S. coalition has now grown to 50 members, from 40.
The trouble he faces, however, is that most of the regional members — Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — are not ready to put troops on the ground or planes in the air, despite their sizable militaries. So once again the U.S. takes the lead in a war the White House says could last several years or more.
Last year, Obama said America would focus on resolving the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and the ageless Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he called two forces of instability in the Middle East.
It’s amazing the difference a year makes. The negotiations with Iran are floundering with blame partially falling on the Israeli lobby on Capitol Hill, and peace talks with Israel and the Palestinians ended abruptly with Israel’s levelling of Gaza and the killing of more than 2,100 Palestinians, of whom the UN said 70 per cent were civilians including 495 children and 253 women. Far from a peaceful solution, the conflict worsened to previously unimaginable brutality. Israeli deaths totalled 71, all but five of whom were soldiers. One child was killed by a Hamas rocket.
Just a few months ago, the mounting crises now confronting the UN were not even on the radar. When the U.S. military in March issued its quadrennial defence review, it made no mention of ISIL or the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which the World Health Organization calls a threat to humanity.
Climate change, on the other hand, was mentioned eight times. It’s a debate that has been ongoing for almost three decades and has failed to produce a treaty to rollback emissions. On the contrary, world carbon emissions grow with no end in sight.
The UN organized a march Sunday through the streets of New York. About 300,000 people turned out and thousands more in cities around the world to protest inaction on climate change.
The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon is holding a special climate summit and has appointed actor Leonardo DiCaprio as the UN Messenger of Peace to spread the word, which may not excite Harper. DiCaprio is an outspoken critic of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the oilsands.
Harper will attend Ban Ki-moon’s private dinner for world leaders on climate issues. On Thursday, for the first time since 2010, he will deliver Canada’s speech to the UN General Assembly. He’s devoting a chunk of his three-day stay to a Q & A Wednesday at Goldman Sachs headquarters in the financial district.
Kerry claimed Monday that climate change was as important as fighting ISIL and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Given the resounding failure to reduced carbon emissions, it doesn’t bode well for the present and future sufferers of Ebola. So far, more than 2,000 people have died and officials predict it will spread to more than 20,000 over the next month.
The potential spread of this deadly disease has frightened the international community. The U.S., last week, deployed an army medical unit to Liberia. Other countries have taken similar action. Canada has sent an anti-Ebola experimental vaccine as well as health-care personnel and is supporting numerous NGOs.
The UNGA will also be taken up with discussion over the Ukraine and Palestinian-Israel conflicts, which after the killings in Gaza, many countries claim they are determined to confront.
Expect Harper to deliver a speech that embraces all of these crises — excepting climate change — as they play nicely into the coming election year. The conflict in Ukraine holds particular importance for Harper as Canada has about 1.25 million citizens of Ukrainian descent.
Americans generally aren’t avid fans of the UN and don’t pay much attention to its plenaries.
This time, however, it might be a little different. As one former U.S. diplomat told Politico, Obama faces “a world on fire.”
wmarsden@postmedia.com
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