want to take a moment in the midst of everything here in washington to talk about syria. a set of photos has stopped us in our tracks. the brutal war sent people running for their lives. families, innocent civilians, children, but in some cities they have not been able to leave and nothing, not even food has been able in until now. one of them is madaya. pictures are graphic. thousands of people starving. some starving to death. many of those people fighting for their lives, toddlers, their skin like paper over tiny bones reports of infants going months without milk. children forced to eat stray
this is a big deal for two reasons. one is it s the first time a human rights issue really has been brought into the security council. this is the forum that typically debates peacekeeping, nonproliferation. now this is about human rights but a broader story about ten members of the security council deciding that this has gone too far. there are 200,000 people in camps. millions of people starving. this rises to the level of responsibility of the duty to protect and happens again, perhaps coincidentally, as this cyber back and forth is going on, but it s a long unfolding story which china really has been i won t say complicit in but been allowing to tapes, and if they allow this meeting to go forward, which they ll do, it s a big deal because it means that china as well, even though they re going to have to defend north korea, they re getting to realize that this is more of a nuisance. you talk about the
serious clout. the center for public integrity says the two leading maritime unions, for instance, gave more than $750,000 to members of the current house of representatives in the 2012 election cycle. and the center says, those members of congress, republicans and democrats, receiving that money, voted against dr. shah s efforts to reform the program 83-29. i have to admit, i just don t understand. i get the idea of bureaucracy, but when you are talking about people starving, a program that takes three months to get food, ship food and deliver it to them, i mean, they re going to die. we want to reach as many as we can as efficiently as possible. this is an extraordinarily difficult problem. after five years of pushing, dr. shah has the flexibility to spend about 20% of the funds the way that he sees fit. that, in his view, is not nearly
it at least gets people thinking about north korea. north korea is one of the strangest places on this or any other you west there in 2005. i did go there. and to churchill s old quote, it s a mystery wrapped in enigma. this we do have to understand, that china is the key to north korea. if there s to be peace in the region, over any length of time, china will be the key to that. i don t think most americans know that. so in the sense that dennis rodman going to have his picture taken with him, i agree with you that a certain naiveness comes into this. but terrible things have happened there. murder, the country s concentration camps, people starving, all of those things. dennis rodman was the, i think all-time rebounder in the nba. he can t be expected to know all of this. i find it oddly fascinating, kim jong-un is such a basketball fan. it humanizes him in a way he s never been humanized. we don t know much about this
other you west there in 2005. i did go there. and to churchill s old quote, it s a mystery wrapped in enigma. this we do have to understand, that china is the key to north korea. if there s to be peace in the region, over any length of time, china will be the key to that. i don t think most americans know that. so in the sense that dennis rodman going to have his picture taken with him, i agree with you that a certain naiveness comes into this. but terrible things have happened there. murder, the country s concentration camps, people starving, all of those things. dennis rodman was the, i think all-time rebounder in the nba. he can t be expected to know all of this. i find it oddly fascinating, kim jong-un is such a basketball fan. it humanizes him in a way he s never been humanized. we don t know much about this guy. he inherited when his father died. we don t know almost anything about him.