The organization whose approval John Kerry requires for global action in defense of our national security has been urged to run away yet again from Iraq due to the danger of confronting terrorists, the AP has just reported:

Two organizations representing more than 60,000 United Nations staff members urged Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to pull all U.N. staff out of Iraq because of the "unprecedented" risk to their safety and security.

In a joint letter to Annan, the staff organizations cited a dramatic escalation in attacks in Iraq and said the United Nations regrettably "has become a direct target, one that is particularly prone to attacks by ruthless extremist terrorist factions."

"Just one staff member is one staff member too many in Iraq," they said. "We ... appeal to your good judgment to ensure that no further staff members be sent to Iraq and that those already deployed be instructed to leave as soon as possible."

Annan pulled all U.N. international staff out of Iraq a year ago, following two bombings at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers. The first bombing, on Aug. 22, 2003, killed the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others.

In August, the secretary-general allowed a small U.N. contingent to return to Baghdad and imposed a ceiling of 35 international staffers, but he has been under pressure to increase the number to help Iraq prepare for elections in January.

In fact, that number came under ridicule from John Edwards last night, who claimed that Cleveland needed more than 35 staffers to ensure fair elections, let alone a vast country like Iraq. He's right, of course, but what's his solution? Turning the entire country over to the pusillanimous posturers at Turtle Bay, who bugged out in 2003 because they were stupid enough to hire their former IIS minders as their security contingent instead of relying on American forces. Their mission chief paid for that mistake with his life and the lives of 22 others.

Kofi Annan has yet to respond, but the letter from the worker's unions have this to say about their commitment to a better world for the Iraqi people:

"While we understand that the people of Iraq deserve the support and assistance of the international community, we cannot condone the deployment of U.N. staff to Iraq in view of the unprecedented high level of risk to the safety and security of staff," the letter signed by the two presidents said.

In other words, we'd love to see Iraq as a safe and peaceful country, but we're not going to do any heavy lifting to make it happen. We'd love Iraqis to be free, but only if someone else makes all the bad people go away.

This has been the consistent result of UN leadership over the past decade and more. Under the auspices of the UN, Saddam was allowed to defy resolution after resolution and repeatedly violate the terms of the Safwan cease-fire without any consequences. Indeed, the UN even created a vast program designed to feed his people and allowed the recalcitrant tyrant to steal $10 billion from it without challenge. In Srebrenica, Kosovo, Rwanda, and other places under the UN's so-called protection, as soon as hostilities broke out, blue-helmeted "peacekeepers" ran to the nearest barracks to wait out the violence.

The UN has built a consistent track record of cowardice and corruption. John Kerry feels that such an organization should have the final say on the legitimacy of American security policy. If he believes that the UN will protect Americans any better than they have protected Rwandans, Bosnians, or the Iraqi people, then he is so seriously deluded that his very nomination calls into question the legitimacy of the Democratic Party.

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