"Comply! Or we will be forced to write you a very angry letter!"

Mitt Romney wrote, in the words of fictional "Hans Brix" from Team America, a very angry letter to the United Nations. The contents of which, basically, are vapid charges against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by calling for the destruction of Israel, Ahmadinejad has committed crimes against humanity; namely, incitement of genocide.

Obviously, Ahmadinejad is a horrifying dictator bent on hegemony not only of the Middle East, but likely as the world as a whole. His government is clearly funding and training anti-American forces in Iraq and is working towards creating nuclear weapons. And, of course, there's that whole funding-of-Hezbollah thing. I tend not to be a fan of those funding attacks whose only purpose is the slaughter of as many innocent civilians as possible. Thus, my humor is not directed towards him.

It is, however, directed towards Gov. Romney because the entire idea of the letter is a joke. Of course, the United Nations is going to ignore it. Of course, Ahmadinejad is going to come to New York, call President Bush the Great Satan, then go have an anti-American tea in Caracas with Chavez. The letter is just simple posturing, trying to attract attention and bolster his credentials as a hawk in the face of new challenges from Fred Thompson.

I'm glad that the useless, worthless gesture for purely political reasons amounted to little more than writing a letter, making copies for the press, and calling a short press conference. it could be worse, though; he could have paralyzed Congress for months in order to make a statement about the war in Iraq.

Romney Calls on U.N. to Bar Iranian President
The New York Times - The Caucus blog

Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, is sending a letter to the United Nations Secretary General tomorrow, calling for him to bar Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from addressing the General Assembly next week and instead hand him an indictment under the Genocide Convention.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to give a speech at the 62nd annual meeting of the General Assembly, which begins Tuesday in New York. It will be his third visit to the United States, where he is expected to spend two days, before he departs for Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chavez.

An array of Jewish leaders, political leaders and others, including John Bolton, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, gathered last year to call for the United Nations' International Court of Justice to indict Mr. Ahmadinejad for incitement of genocide. They base their argument on his calls for the destruction of Israel.

The specific statute the officials cite falls under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which includes under its list of prohibitions, incitement to commit genocide.

In President Bush's nationally televised speech last week on Iraq, he stressed the need to contain Iran as one of the reasons to continue a robust American presence in Iraq. In an interview about his views about Iraq last week, Mr. Romney also highlighted the influence of Iran in the region as a major source of concern.