Note
With great fanfare and way back in March, the UN created "the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic" and appointed Åke Sellström as head of mission. Various UN press releases - also now months old - said the mission was poised to spring into action. "I can report that the United Nations investigation mission is now in a position to deploy in Syria in less than 24 hours," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on April 8, 2013. In the meantime, with little comfort to Syrians, the SG has used UN conferences to carry on about "historic achievements" and "remarkable progress" in eliminating chemical weapons. Now we hear on July 11, 2013 about more "progress." Here's the UN idea of making a difference in the Syrian conflict, according to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General: "the Head of the United Nations mission to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic ha[s] obtained the Secretary-General's approval to accept the invitation of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic to visit Damascus, and the Secretary-General hopes that this visit will occur as soon as possible...[T]he purpose of the visit will be to complete the consultations on the modalities of cooperation required for the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission...[I]t is not the investigation mission, it's to go there to complete the consultations on the modalities." The UN of the 21st century in a nutshell: travel to the country where a hundred thousand deaths have already occurred and where casualties continue to mount daily to consult on the modalities of cooperation.