Time for U.N. to find new home
Lebanon Daily News ^ | July 22, 2004 |
The United States was one of the founders of the United Nations, which, back in the years immediately following World War II, seemed like a good idea.
It has become increasingly apparent that what may have been a good idea at the time no longer works. The United Nations has outlived its usefulness, whatever that usefulness may have once been. It is time for the U.S. to withdraw from the U.N. and politely invite the organization to find a new home.
Nairobi might be a suitable locale.
While the American left continues to pay homage to the United Nations, it does so without examining the facts in evidence, and the evidence is that the U.N. has become a corrupt debating society.
Fact 1: The U.N.'s highly touted oil-for-food program for Iraq was a colossal failure, at least in terms of what it was supposed to accomplish.
Although the program was designed to aid Iraqis, the only Iraqis who benefitted were Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. According to a growing body of evidence, Saddam wound up picking up something in excess of $10 billion through oil smuggling and program kickbacks, money that was not only spent on elaborate palaces but also funnelled to various terrorist groups.
That evidence also indicts, among others, France, Germany and Russia, all of whom had sweetheart oil deals with the Iraqi government. Those agreements were the primary reason for the opposition to the decision by the U.S. to enforce the U.N. resolutions against Iraq. Indeed, despite their opposition to the U.S.-led coalition that effected the regime change in Iraq, those countries were among the first to demand a part in the reconstruction process and to demand that the financial deals they made with the Saddam regime be honored.
Fact 2: The U.N. has virtually ignored the disaster that Africa has become.
Although most of the nations on the continent are members of the U.N., and although the U.N.'s secretary general, Kofi Annan, is Ghanian, there has been no effort made to do anything to provide aid to a continent that seems to be coming apart at the seams. Sudan may be a member of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, but all available evidence points to the fact that in the Sudan, the only human rights belong to the Muslim majority in Khartoum. Slavery is still being practiced, the victims members of non-Muslim peoples living in the south of the country. So, too, is enforced famine and "ethnic cleansing."
The U.N. totally ignored the genocide that took place in Rwanda in the 1990s, that resulted in millions of deaths.
The U.N. has ignored the depredations of Robert Mugabe, who, in "nationalizing" Zimbabwe, has effectively turned the country from a food exporter into a food importer.
Fact 3: The U.N. is anti-Semitic.
Although Israel is a member of the United Nations, only the veto of the United States on the Security Council has prevented any number of resolutions condemning Israel. That, however, has not stopped public criticism of Israel's efforts to simply exist.
The latest outrage was a ruling by a U.N. court, and a later vote by the General Assembly, calling the barrier Israel is building to separate itself from the Palestinians a violation of international law.
It is worth noting that the purpose of the wall is to keep terrorists out, not to fence anyone in, and that since construction began, the number of homicide bombings has dropped drastically. It is further worth noting that the U.N. has never condemned terrorist acts against Israel. The U.N. also never said anything about a wall in Berlin which was designed to keep people in. The U.N. had no part in the collapse of that wall.
Fact 4: The U.N. is corrupt.
A new book was recently published, much to the dismay of Annan, who did everything he could to stop it. The book was written by a group of current and former U.N. employees. The current employees were threatened with the loss of their jobs if the book was published.
It was. The title of the book is "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures." It chronicles various U.N. peacekeeping missions which were less about peacekeeping and more about sex-and-drug parties.
Other reports reveal embezzlement and theft, on a massive scale, in relief operations in both Somolia and Cambodia, the money being pocketed by U.N. representatives, among them Annan's son.
For all the rhetoric that seems to emanate from the U.N., the organization essentially exists only because of the good graces of the U.S., which increasingly finds itself the target of U.N. criticism. It is time for the U.S. to separate itself from the U.N., both as a member state and as a beneficient landlord. Moving the U.N. headquarters to Nairobi might give the U.N. diplomats a chance to see what life is like in their home countries. And it would certainly save American taxpayers a lot of money.
Lebanon Daily News ^ | July 22, 2004 |
The United States was one of the founders of the United Nations, which, back in the years immediately following World War II, seemed like a good idea.
It has become increasingly apparent that what may have been a good idea at the time no longer works. The United Nations has outlived its usefulness, whatever that usefulness may have once been. It is time for the U.S. to withdraw from the U.N. and politely invite the organization to find a new home.
Nairobi might be a suitable locale.
While the American left continues to pay homage to the United Nations, it does so without examining the facts in evidence, and the evidence is that the U.N. has become a corrupt debating society.
Fact 1: The U.N.'s highly touted oil-for-food program for Iraq was a colossal failure, at least in terms of what it was supposed to accomplish.
Although the program was designed to aid Iraqis, the only Iraqis who benefitted were Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. According to a growing body of evidence, Saddam wound up picking up something in excess of $10 billion through oil smuggling and program kickbacks, money that was not only spent on elaborate palaces but also funnelled to various terrorist groups.
That evidence also indicts, among others, France, Germany and Russia, all of whom had sweetheart oil deals with the Iraqi government. Those agreements were the primary reason for the opposition to the decision by the U.S. to enforce the U.N. resolutions against Iraq. Indeed, despite their opposition to the U.S.-led coalition that effected the regime change in Iraq, those countries were among the first to demand a part in the reconstruction process and to demand that the financial deals they made with the Saddam regime be honored.
Fact 2: The U.N. has virtually ignored the disaster that Africa has become.
Although most of the nations on the continent are members of the U.N., and although the U.N.'s secretary general, Kofi Annan, is Ghanian, there has been no effort made to do anything to provide aid to a continent that seems to be coming apart at the seams. Sudan may be a member of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, but all available evidence points to the fact that in the Sudan, the only human rights belong to the Muslim majority in Khartoum. Slavery is still being practiced, the victims members of non-Muslim peoples living in the south of the country. So, too, is enforced famine and "ethnic cleansing."
The U.N. totally ignored the genocide that took place in Rwanda in the 1990s, that resulted in millions of deaths.
The U.N. has ignored the depredations of Robert Mugabe, who, in "nationalizing" Zimbabwe, has effectively turned the country from a food exporter into a food importer.
Fact 3: The U.N. is anti-Semitic.
Although Israel is a member of the United Nations, only the veto of the United States on the Security Council has prevented any number of resolutions condemning Israel. That, however, has not stopped public criticism of Israel's efforts to simply exist.
The latest outrage was a ruling by a U.N. court, and a later vote by the General Assembly, calling the barrier Israel is building to separate itself from the Palestinians a violation of international law.
It is worth noting that the purpose of the wall is to keep terrorists out, not to fence anyone in, and that since construction began, the number of homicide bombings has dropped drastically. It is further worth noting that the U.N. has never condemned terrorist acts against Israel. The U.N. also never said anything about a wall in Berlin which was designed to keep people in. The U.N. had no part in the collapse of that wall.
Fact 4: The U.N. is corrupt.
A new book was recently published, much to the dismay of Annan, who did everything he could to stop it. The book was written by a group of current and former U.N. employees. The current employees were threatened with the loss of their jobs if the book was published.
It was. The title of the book is "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures." It chronicles various U.N. peacekeeping missions which were less about peacekeeping and more about sex-and-drug parties.
Other reports reveal embezzlement and theft, on a massive scale, in relief operations in both Somolia and Cambodia, the money being pocketed by U.N. representatives, among them Annan's son.
For all the rhetoric that seems to emanate from the U.N., the organization essentially exists only because of the good graces of the U.S., which increasingly finds itself the target of U.N. criticism. It is time for the U.S. to separate itself from the U.N., both as a member state and as a beneficient landlord. Moving the U.N. headquarters to Nairobi might give the U.N. diplomats a chance to see what life is like in their home countries. And it would certainly save American taxpayers a lot of money.
