I’ll also note that guerrillas who kill people are called “insurgents” and compared to Minutemen when they’re anti-American, and “death squads” when they’re not. Typical.
Kofi Annan has decided that the Aussie-American coalition of the willing is, in fact, a UN operation whether they know it or not. “The core group will support the United Nations effort,” he said. “That group will be in support of the efforts that the United Nations is leading.”
So American personnel in American planes and American ships will deliver American food and American medicine and implement an American relief plan, but it’s still a “UN-led effort.”
That seems to be enough for Kofi. His “moral authority” is intact, and the European media can still bash the Yanks for their stinginess. Everybody’s happy.
I presume that by “effort” Annan means “promoting the UN”, although he’s probably somewhat aware that there is some sort of crisis serving as the background for PR campaign.