JIM GLASSMAN LOOKS BACK on his book Dow 36,000 and observes: “For some, however, the book became an object of derision because — just in case you haven’t noticed — the Dow hasn’t actually risen to 36,000 yet. . . . Do I have any regrets about the book? Well, yes. The title.”

Judging by the reader reviews, it was a mistake.

MY SECRETARY, a combat-engineer Marine reservist, is part of the battalion profiled in this New York Times article today. He emails:

The Engineers are kept busy with these raids and I have been to every area/town mentioned in the article working with everyone from Army tanks, Britons, Australians, Iraqis from every imaginable agency, and even explosive sniffing dogs.

Thanksgiving I worked through, literally 30 plus hours but had an amazing meal on the Saturday after. Even got to watch a bit of football as we had a bit of downtime that weekend. Unfortunately did not get to see the Vols play against Auburn. The Cotton Bowl did not seem unexpected but I believe our last to trips were losses to Nebraska and K State in pretty cold games. Oh well.

He’s a good secretary, but this work is more important.

CANADA’S NATIONAL POST:

Kofi must go

Last Wednesday, Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota and co-chairman of the U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq, called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign in a commentary published in The Wall Street Journal. While Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China quickly rallied to Mr. Annan’s defence, there can be no doubt that the senator is correct: Mr. Annan has to go. . . .

Over the decade-long run of the oil-for-food program, the UN and several member states looked on as Saddam Hussein siphoned off at least 20% of its $100-billion revenues for his personal use. Hundreds of millions went to rebuilding the Iraqi army; more was paid out in kickbacks to Western politicians, governments, political parties, journalists and UN officials who looked the other way. Tens of millions funded terrorist training and operations around the world, particularly among Palestinians. The grandiose, sprawling palaces U.S. troops discovered when they liberated Baghdad and other Iraqi cities were constructed by Saddam and his family with the proceeds from oil sales meant to pay for food and medicines for ordinary Iraqis. Critics of the American- and British-backed sanctions against Iraq that were in place from the early 1990s until the 2003 invasion claimed they were responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis per year through malnutrition and disease. But we now know it was Saddam’s lust for gold plumbing fixtures and weapons that caused the lion’s share of Iraqi hardship.

Under Mr. Annan’s leadership, the UN feigned blindness to all this.

Read the whole, rather damning, thing.

UNSCAM UPDATE:

Over three decades Charles Pasqua’s name has been linked to a series of French corruption scandals, but the former French interior minister has maintained his innocence and has never been convicted of any wrongdoing.

Now, Pasqua is being eyed as a player in the Oil-for-Food scandal. The CIA’s report listed Pasqua as having received oil vouchers from Saddam, vouchers that would have given him a profit of at least $400,000.

“I have never received anything from Saddam Hussein,” he said through an interpreter.

FOX News asked Pasqua why his name ended up in the CIA report?

“It’s a good question,” he said. “It’s not only my name that’s there. The names of other French officials are included.”

More here:

Speaking at a festive dinner Friday night that was organized by the U.N. Correspondents Association, Secretary-General Kofi Annan joked about rumors that he is about to resign. “I am resigning myself,” he said as members of the audience gasped, “to having a good time.” Mr. Annan’s feeble attempt at humor aside, his malfeasance in office is a cruel joke that has been played time and again on the people that the United Nations is supposed to help.

The oil-for-food scandal — where Saddam Hussein systematically looted what was supposed to be a humanitarian program to pay off his political cronies — is just one of the very prominent stains on the record of Mr. Annan and the United Nations.

Indeed.