Argument with Joe "Chip" Pitts

Let's make no mistake. Amnesty International has become a bludgeon of the U.N. The U.N quotes them, they quote the U.N and revel in their omnipotent smugness. Fortunately for truth tellers, the U.N, has lost so much credibility that Amnesty International now finds themselves between a rock and hard place.

I spoke with Chip Pitts after the Houston AI Rally to Denounce Torture (by American troops in Guantanimo but keep your fucking mouth shut about U.N. workers and child prostitutes in Romania). He was full of the usual pseudo-anger at the U.S. invasion of Iraq and subsequent deposing of Saddam Hussein, one of the worst genocidal dictators in history. This conversation is by no means verbatim, but it captures the gist of it.

"Why is the U.S. going into Iraq when there is genocide in Darfur?" Mr. Pitts diatribed.

"Why is it that the U.S. is the only country to even call it genocide?" I asked.

"See? The U.S. know it's genocide and does nothing," he bemoaned.

"No, we can't do anything because we're too busy enforcing U.N. regulations in Iraq. How much of the U.N. budget is supplied by the U.S.?"

"23%" (for a liberal he has a surprising grasp of dollars and cents).

"So let me get this straight. We supply almost a quarter of the U.N. budget and we have to enforce U.N. resolutions? Why isn't the U.N. taking care of the genocide in the Sudan? If I were President Bush, I would withold all monies from the U.N. until they resolved the situation in Darfur. But wait, they can't. For some unknown reason, the U.S. was booted off the Human Rights Council in favor of genocide-sponsoring Sudan."

"Well Amnesty International has been on record condemning the U.N. for it's corruption and human rights issues," he intoned sanctimoniously.

"So where is the rally, huh? Where are the signs and the bullhorns and the Muslims with Microphones denouncing the rape of children in the Congo? Where is the rally demanding justice for them? No. You hypocrites sit around calling GITMO the "gulag of our time" and holding rallies against the U.S. and ignoring actual genocide and actual gulags."

I was on a soapbox by this time and I didn't really hear what else he was saying. Nothing caught my attention, so it was probably just self-righteous stuttering.

I was disheartened to see a major spokesperson for a once vital international organization beaten in an argument by the likes of me. It doesn't speak at all well for the world community and it should make us very nervous that they have as much credibility as they do when their arguments are so weak.