Susan Rice Un Ambassador

Arguing over a resolution on Syria, Russia and the United States indulged in barbs that resulted in a U.S. cartoon of the "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" adorned with the face of the Vitaly Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador.

No one so far is calling for military intervention in Syria. Instead it is expected that arms will be smuggled to the opposition, possibly through neighboring Turkey -- unless the Arab League manages to institute a genuine peace.

Will Turkey and others ensure that Syrian opposition forces have enough military support to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad? Suddenly, it's a fast moving saga.

The speeches from Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu illustrated the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians -- a fear their existence is at stake and widely disparate accounts of a painful shared history.

As the Syrian military killed more and more people, all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council for the first time condemned the government's use of force against civilians and its gross violations of human rights.

Surprisingly, the often lethargic UN Security Council has approved force against Libya in a race against time to prevent the forces of Col. Muammar Gaddafi from crushing the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Why is the US agreeing to turn over control of peace negotiations to a government currently engaged in bombings, village burnings, and obstruction of peacekeepers?

As long as a ransom is paid and impoverished Somalia is in shambles, combating piracy is a matter of hit and miss and depends on fire power of vessels or foreign navies rushing to their protection.

More than 20 years after sanctions were imposed on Iraq for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, the UN Security Council lifted most restrictions, symbolically closing what Baghdad calls a "dark chapter" in its history.

Ban Ki-moon denied the Israeli military was off limits in a U.N. inquiry into the deadly Israeli commando raid on a Turkish-led aid flotilla heading for Gaza. Israel disputes this and no one is sure what the panel's job description is.

If you are comfortable living in a world where America has no more influence than China, then you may like Obama's softer, quieter, weaker America. Iran certainly loves it.

Texting while driving, an important public safety issue, is best left to the jurisdiction of local and state officials, not our UN Ambassador. America's representative to the UN has plenty of other issues she should be working on.

The big powers struck back at Turkey and Brazil's uranium swap deal with Iran by putting their draft sanctions resolution on the table, in effect telling the two nations they were not going to run the show.

What is clear is that Susan Rice hasn't found her voice at the UN even though she has been in the job for over a year. It seems hard to take her seriously.

Ambassador Susan Rice -- on the front lines in New York -- has dramatically changed our course at the UN to make Americans safer and to move us toward a more peaceful and prosperous world.

It has been just over one year since Rice was confirmed by the Senate to be the Permanent Representative to the UN and she so far has been wildly inattentive in New York while actively social in Washington.

For the 18th consecutive year, the General Assembly condemned the US embargo against Cuba. But this was the first vote since President Obama took office, and everyone listened for hints of change.