The most dangerous man in the world before Obama

Yes, it's John Major. Like Barack Obama, he aspired to be "King of the Universe" and acted as an enabler of rogue states.

How is this possible, you ask? Well, you just need to immerse yourself in the neverending crazy that is the American right. After President Obama's Maoist address to school children about the importance of setting goals and achieving them was found out, National Review's Anne Bayefsky has rumbled the next stage of the plot --

Looking for a quick and easy boost in the polls, President Obama has decided to go to the one place where merit bears no relationship to adulation: the United Nations. On September 24, the president will take the unprecedented step of presiding over a meeting of the UN Security Council.

No American president has ever attempted to acquire the image of King of the Universe by officiating at a meeting of the UN’s highest body. But Obama apparently believes that being flanked by council-member heads of state like Col. Moammar Qaddafi — who is expected to be seated five seats to Obama’s right — will cast a sufficiently blinding spell on the American taxpayer that the perilous state of the nation’s economy, the health-care fiasco, and a summer of “post-racial” scapegoating will pale by comparison.

After all, who among us is not for world peace?

Unfortunately, however, the move represents one of the most dangerous diplomatic ploys this country has ever seen. The president didn’t just decide to chair a rare council summit; he also set the September 24 agenda — as is the prerogative of the state holding the gavel for the month.

It's weird how the UN pivots between so feeble that the US has to invade countries in the face of its inaction to being so powerful that a mere meeting is a threat to the United States. Luckily we have people keeping an eye on them.

So what's the issue? Barack Obama has indeed exercised the prerogative of every chairing country to call a summit meeting of the Security Council. And he is indeed devoting it to nuclear non-proliferation. Apparently he thinks that the fewer nukes in the world, the better, and since the countries in possession of most of them will be sitting around the table this month, it might be a good time to bring it up. But somehow this has all become a plot to ignore Iran and slam Israel -- neither of which are mentioned at all in the meeting agenda.

And what of the apparent stunt of using a UN security council meeting as a summit? The only precedent for it is John Major in January 1992, who called for a summit on the role of the security council in maintaining international peace and security. The Council was coming off a high point in having backed the US-led liberation of Kuwait and Major needed a PR stunt since he was still operating in the shadow of Maggie.

But of course the high minded sentiments in which the security council was from then on going to be a key player in preventing and mitigating conflict soon gave way to the disasters of Rwanda and Yugoslavia. On the other hand, John Major did pull out his miracle election victory and George Bush Snr's speech to the UN summit is still worth a read. He saw no normalization of relations with Iraq until Saddam was gone and none with Libya till Lockerbie was sorted out. Plus ca change and all that.

So anyway, if you can explain how the world was made worse off by John Major chairing a UN summit, then maybe we can worry about Barack Obama doing it in 3 weeks. Otherwise let the blatherfest unfold.