UN’s Ban Increasingly Shows Hawkish Side

Pushes for 'Action' in Syria, More Troops in Somalia

Usually portrayed as relatively cautious, even irksomely so by Western hawks, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seems to be finding his own hawkish groove, cheering the war in Libya while pushing for escalation elsewhere.

Speaking to reporters, he rejected the notion that NATO overstepped its bounds with its summer war against Libya, saying that it was “within the mandate” and that “there should be no misunderstanding on that.” The UN mandate for a no-fly zone was used by NATO for months of air strikes against western Libyan cities, as well as arming and coordinating with the rebels that eventually took over the country.

Meanwhile, Ban called for “international action” against Syria, saying that in the “name of humanity” he was calling on the international community to unite against the Assad regime.

Capping off his day, Ban also urged the deployment of large numbers of additional troops and a significant amount of additional international funding to support the African Union’s war in Somalia, aimed at propping up an unpopular, mostly irrelevant government in Mogadishu.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.