« What Censorship Is | Main | Network News? Who Needs Them? »

April 22, 2005

Is the UN Worth Saving?

William Rusher of Human Events Online poses the question, "Is the United Nations worth saving?" What follows is a thoughtful and informative piece that attempts to answer this question, and provide a detailed explanation. Excerpts:

" ...About 1960, a flood of new ex-colonial nations entered the world body, and quickly organized themselves as the Third World, ostensibly neutral in the epochal struggle between the Communist powers and the Free World. By virtue of sheer numbers this new entity seized control of the General Assembly -- and with it control of the United Nations' central bureaucracy -- and began selling itself to the higher of the two global bidders: Washington and Moscow. Slowly, however, under the leadership of India, the Third World began siding regularly with Moscow, and the United Nations followed suit.

"This thoroughly unsatisfactory state of affairs lasted until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. That forced the Untied Nations, which, like any bureaucracy, is interested first and foremost in self-preservation, to seek a new sponsor. In the past decade, as France and Germany have increasingly seen themselves as the leaders of Europe in an effort to create a counterbalance to the American superpower; the United Nations has progressively yielded to their guidance. Today, it is little more than a marginally useful tool in their schemes to rein in the United States.

"That is one reason why, in 2002 and 2003, the United Nations did its unsuccessful best to block the American invasion of Iraq, despite Saddam Hussein's defiance of 12 successive U.N. demands that it abandon its development of chemical, biological and (if possible) nuclear weapons of mass destruction. And that is also why U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is today contending that any American military effort is "illegal" if Washington doesn't first receive the United Nations' permission."

I suggest you give the whole thing a read.

Posted by Lockjaw at April 22, 2005 12:44 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.lockjawslair.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/46

Comments

Post a comment