UN’s Ban Ki-Moon Pushes War with Syria, Climate Alarmism at CFR

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (pictured) ventured up the street from the United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday, February 11, to the New York City headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) to deliver the Sorenson Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations (see video at bottom of page; Ban’s speech begins at about 4:55).

Ban Ki-moon explained to his audience that there are so many items on the UN’s agenda that it would not be possible for him to “cover all of even the most urgent issues in the space of these remarks.” “So,” he said, “I have chosen two items above all others to discuss in depth”:

Both have huge consequences. In both cases, the international community is not upholding its responsibilities. Both risk the harsh judgement of history should present trends continue. And both require collective action that must involve the United States.

I speak about the crisis in Syria — and the threat of climate catastrophe.

In addressing these two topics to this particular audience, the Secretary General knew he was pushing on an open door; many of the movers and shakers from the worlds of politics, finance, and media in the CFR audience have been in the forefront of promoting U.S. support for UN military intervention in Syria and using fear over global warming to effect the UN’s call for “a complete transformation of the economic structure of the world.”

So, the first order of business, from Ban’s standpoint, is to line up U.S. support for war on Syria by the UN “peacemakers” and “peacekeepers.” Ban stated his case:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Syria is self-destructing. After nearly two years, we no longer count days in hours, but in bodies. Another day, another 100, 200, 300 dead.

Fighting rages. Sectarian hatred is on the rise. The catalogue of war crimes is mounting. Sexual violence is widespread.

The destruction is systematic. Syria is being torn apart, limb by limb.

The political crisis has bred a humanitarian emergency. Four million people — one out of every five Syrians — are in need of immediate assistance….

Of course, the Secretary General did not mention that much of the bloodshed and carnage he highlighted in his talk has been the work of the “rebel” forces supported by the Obama administration (see here and here).

The administration-created-and-backed Syrian National Council (SNC) is a congeries of criminals and misfits dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, communists, socialists, and militant jihadists — including al-Qaeda.

The chairman of the SNC is 65-year-old George Sabra, who has been a member of the Moscow-directed Syrian Communist Party since the 1970s and a key leader in the Party since the 1980s.

President Obama, whose administration includes CFR members in many of its key posts has been following the CFR line (see here, here, and here) for intervention in Syria, much the same as in Egypt, Libya and, now, Mali — all the while putting on a public show of being reluctant to get involved in the conflict.

The Syrian dictatorship of Bashir al-Assad is a brutal thugocracy, the successor to the communist, pro-Soviet regime of his father, Hafez al-Assad. However, the SNC forces that the Obama administration, the European Union, and the UN are supporting would be just as bad, and most likely even worse. Have the regimes installed by the lawless U.S./NATO/UN actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, or Libya been anything to boast of in terms of advancing human rights, democratic process, transparency, or freedom from rampant corruption? They are all miserable failures in each of these areas. We have installed violent, intolerant, corrupt oligarchies that pretend to operate under “the rule of law.” Moreover, as we have reported, in each of these cases, the surviving Christian minorities have been especially targeted for retaliation and extermination. (See: “Christian Massacres: A Result of U.S. Foreign Policy”)

More Global-warming Hysteria

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” said the UN’s grand panjandrum, “Let me turn now to the gathering threat of climate change.” Ban then dived into the predictable series of dire apocalyptic predictions, as if he were channeling the spirit of Al Gore:

Scientists have long sounded the alarm. Top-ranking military commanders and security experts have now joined the chorus. Yet the political class seems far behind.

You all know the potential consequences. A downward global spiral of extreme weather and disaster. Reversals in development gains. Increases in displacement. Aggravated tensions over water and land. Fragile states tipping into chaos.

The “solutions” the UN chief proposes include “embracing the transition to a low-carbon, low-emissions future,” which means switching to the already discredited, failed “green energy” sources that have proven to be costly boondoggles that can deliver only a small fraction of the energy needed for real “sustainable” living.

Ban concluded his peroration with this appeal, which was the principal reason for his visit to the CFR:

A global climate change agreement would give us the engine we need to advance us decisively on this path.

I welcome President Obama’s new resolve to address climate change and give it high political priority. I am reaching out to government and business leaders to mobilize the capital and the political will for a global, legally binding climate change agreement by 2015. World leaders have pledged to reach an agreement, and we must hold them to that promise.

President Obama did not disappoint; the following night, in his State of the Union address, he declared that “We’ll keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders…” He did not mention that he has already put U.S. troops on the Syrian border without the approval of Congress.

In his address President Obama also presented the UN-CFR line on climate change and the supposed imperative of immediate, dramatic action by the federal government. In fact, he said he would act unilaterally, presumably using executive orders, if Congress does not fall into line. He said:

But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change….

But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will….

As we reported recently, during the UN’s December 2012 Climate Summit in Doha, Qatar, CFR members operating both inside and outside of the administration were putting a huge emphasis on rekindling the momentum for a global climate regime. (See “CFR Pushes End to Sovereignty at UN’s Doha Climate Summit”) Public support for government action to combat the non-existent “crisis” of global warming has melted over the past several years, due to the ongoing Climategate scandals and to an increasing awareness of both the enormous price tag of the alarmists’ proposals and the abundance of scientific studies and renowned scientists debunking the doomsday nonsense. Nevertheless, the CFR and its allies in the administration, the media, NGOs, academe, and the major tax-exempt foundations are not about to let the untold billions of dollars and two decades of effort they have invested in the global-warming scare come to naught. They are rebooting the fright-peddling efforts to reenergize this major campaign to empower the UN and effect the “complete transformation of the economic structure of the world.”

Note: A printed text version of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations is available here. The full video of his speech can be viewed here.