Livery but sick and green

Any argument against asserted authority, however minor, necessarily takes on
the character of rebellion.  While dialogue between the elected and their
electors is a not only tolerated but encouraged; conversations on equal terms
between subjects and Kings are by definition treason and a deadly threat. In the
matter of providing relief for tsunami victims, the UN cannot afford to assume
any other attitude than a reluctant willingness to stoop to command the national
contingents. For the United Nations to abandon its claim to primacy in the
tsunami relief effort is the equivalent of renouncing its scepter as the 'sole
source of legitimacy' and the only fount of 'moral authority'. For no danger is
so great to international organizations and Kings as the peril of being proved
unnecessary.

Though almost almost none of the food, supplies and logistical systems to
provide relief have so far have come from the World Body, it appears
existentially important to it that what has arrived wear the livery of the
United Nations. The necessity of controlling
livery was also understood by Kings.

First in England, and later on the continent, there developed the practice
of raising armies with a system that came to be known as "livery and
maintenance." ... Maintenance was the medieval term for the money payment
made to the soldier. Livery referred to a coat of distinctive color and design
that indicated who the soldier was fighting for. After the Wars of the Roses,
King Henry VII (1485-1509) could not afford to take the chance of an uprising,
so he restrained his nobles' old abilities to raise private armies. In 1487 he
had a law enacted against livery and maintenance and in 1504 codified existing
statutes against "retaining", to prevent the nobles keeping
independent forces.

In this context, a report from Diplomadic
blog correspondent in Aceh alleging a UN request that US and Australian troops
wear UN livery is hardly surprising.

A colleague came back from a meeting held by the local UN representative
yesterday and reported that the UN rep had said that while it was a good thing
that the Australians and Americans were running the air ops into
tsunami-wrecked Aceh, for cultural and political reasons, those Australians
and Americans really "should go blue." In other words, they should
switch into UN uniforms and give up their national ones.

Besides an instant readiness to throw a bal masque, the one
activity at which the United Nations excels is constructing the Potemkin
Village, defined as "something that appears elaborate and impressive
but in actual fact lacks substance". The urgency
to construct one rose as Kofi Annan's airplane neared Indonesia.

In this part of the tsunami-wrecked Far Abroad, the UN is still nowhere to
be seen where it counts, i.e., feeding and helping victims. The relief effort
continues to be a US-Australia effort, with Singapore now in and coordinating
closely with the US and Australia. Other countries are also signing up to be
part of the US-Australia effort. Nobody wants to be "coordinated" by
the UN. The local UN reps are getting desperate. They're calling for yet
another meeting this afternoon; they've flown in more UN big shots to lecture
us all on "coordination" and the need to work together, i.e., let
the UN take credit. With Kofi about to arrive for a big conference, the
UNocrats are scrambling to show something, anything as a UN accomplishment.

It would be ludicrous if it weren't so tragic. Yet is far from certain that
the United States will not make a limited bow of obeisance
to Annan, if only to get him out of the way. His one undoubted power is the
ability to make himself a pest. Annan has already indicated that he is willing
to turn a kinder, gentler face towards the US in exchange for something in
return, a sentiment Al Capone would understand. The International
Herald Tribune reports that Kofi Annan met in closed door session with
supporters in the Manhattan apartment of Richard Holbrooke, the Clinton
Ambassador to the United Nations. It was a strategy session to discuss ways to
save Kofi Annan's tenure and the stature of the United Nations after it had
repeatedly been wracked by scandals.

The larger argument, according to participants, addressed two broad needs.
First, Annan had to move aggressively to repair relations with Washington
where, they said, the administration and many in Congress thought he and the
United Nations had worked actively against President George W. Bush's
reelection. And second, he had to restore his relationship with his own
bureaucracy, where workers felt his office protected high-level officials
accused of misconduct.

In the days following the session, Annan sought and obtained a meeting with
Condoleezza Rice, the incoming secretary of state, that United Nations
officials viewed positively, and he traveled on to Brussels to see European
Union leaders. The secret gathering came at the end of a year that Annan has
described as the organization's "annus horribilis," a year in which
the United Nations faced charges of corruption in the way it ran the
oil-for-food program in Iraq, evidence that blue-helmeted peacekeepers in
Congo ran prostitution rings and raped women and teenage girls and formal
motions of no confidence in the organization's senior management from staff
unions.

Whether these steps will save Kofi Annan and the United Nations remains to be
seen. Whether it will save any victims of the recent tsunami is an irrelevancy.

Update

In the comments section, we discuss the implications of armed groups
attempting to control the relief process and the consequences of their coming
into contact with US or Australian personnel. I wrote:

The UN uniform issue can become deadly serious if some of the Achenese
armed groups fire on convoys at which American or Australian military/official
personnel are present. The UN would then be in a position to say 'if they had
worn UN uniforms the incident would not have happened'. Worse if the Aussies
or Americans fire back. Then we will have Kofi Annan in full accusatory mode.

More in comments.