Glenn Reynolds links to John O'Sullivan's latest contribution to holding the United Nations accountable for its abject failure to serve its purpose. Accountability, however, is a word that can't be found in the General Assembly's glossary. O'Sullivan:

[Americans] look at the multiplying scandals around the United Nations and wonder how the man in charge can avoid being held responsible for any of it by other countries.

But the explanation is simple: Kofi Annan is the symbol of the United Nations' lack of accountability. He is never held responsible for what goes wrong, because the United Nations is never held responsible, either. It sails in a cloud of noble idealism over the actual failures, hypocrisy, corruption and outright criminality that attend some U.N. actions on the ground below.

Corrupt diplomats and bureaucrats are easiest made objects of comic shame, but their aims are sinister enough: they consider themselves above both reproach and debate, deserving of power where there is no mandate. That is the germ of authoritarianism. The United Nations has become a laboratory for compulsory rule, a master class for strongmen in suits and ties to do what would otherwise be impossible within a democratic state. Hopefully, the fast-distending scandals publicized by new media will convince enough people — Americans, at least — that this international body is not a model for a harmonious future but the vestige of an oligarchic past.