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How bad does the UN have to get?
The Telegraph ^ | 5/4/08 | Daniel Hannan

Posted on 05/05/2008 10:53:54 AM PDT by Dawnsblood

Here’s a nice dilemma for Lefties. What if UN peacekeepers in the Congo turn out to have been encouraging elephant poaching? Would they continue to give the organisation their unconditional support?

Elephant poaching in Africa: sanctioned by the UN?

The UN gets away with an extraordinary amount. Because it is thought to embody a lofty ideal, many liberal-minded people are prepared to overlook what it actually does. Never mind that it betrayed the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. Never mind that its officials were illicitly running oil-for-food scams with Saddam. Never mind that it ordered its local commander not to seize the arms caches that were about to be used for the Rwandan genocide. Never mind that its officials have now been accused of selling arms to the Congolese militias. At least it means well.

I’ve argued before that, for many Lefties, intentions seem to matter more than outcomes. But how bad do the outcomes have to be before intentions are no longer an excuse? What has to happen before people face up to the real UN (or EU or IOC or whatever) instead of fantasising about some abstract one?

Appropriately enough, the kind of people who are most unthinkingly pro-UN tend also to be the ones most opposed to the ivory trade. Intentions over outcomes, you see. In truth, the ban on ivory sales has been calamitous, both for Africans and elephants. Experience shows that it is far more effective to declare elephants the property of the people who own the land they roam, thus giving locals an incentive to treat them as a renewable resource. But, once again, Lefties are less interested in concrete results than in showing what nice people they are: hence the calamitous CITES ban.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: africa; bosnia; genocide; poaching

1 posted on 05/05/2008 10:53:54 AM PDT by Dawnsblood
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To: Dawnsblood

We should have kicked out the UN decades ago.


2 posted on 05/05/2008 10:55:44 AM PDT by Eurale
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To: Eurale

We can’t. According to the terms of the treaty they have to want to leave, we can’t expel them. Which doesn’t mean we have to remain in the UN or support it financially.


3 posted on 05/05/2008 10:58:32 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Dawnsblood
How bad does the UN have to get?

Pretty darned bad, apparently.

4 posted on 05/05/2008 10:59:42 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Dawnsblood

I remember when Regan told them where they could go. He threatened to throw them out of New York.

He was the last one.

They should be headquartered in some desert to help them focus on things and not live a cosmopolitan , diplomatically imune lifestyle.

Thanks for posting this...they have long exceeded thier ststed usefulness.


5 posted on 05/05/2008 11:03:53 AM PDT by fishhound (Boycott the Olympics in China.)
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To: Dawnsblood
>>>>>Never mind that it betrayed the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.<<<<<<

I stopped reading after this sentence. "Srebrenica" is litmus for leftist BS.

6 posted on 05/05/2008 11:06:13 AM PDT by DTA
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To: Dawnsblood

The leftists have proven time and time again that they can forgive almost anything as long the individual pushes their goals - World gov’t, wealth redistribution, atheism(anti-Christian as a minimum)/hedonism , anti-American philosophy.


7 posted on 05/05/2008 11:14:38 AM PDT by SengirV
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To: Dawnsblood

It becomes more painfully apparent as incident after incident is ignored, that there IS no outcome bad enough. People are asleep re the UN.


8 posted on 05/05/2008 11:14:52 AM PDT by workerbee (Ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them.)
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To: Dawnsblood

U.N.’s World Food Program Cried Poverty While Sitting on Cash Stockpile of More Than $1.22 Billion

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353944,00.html

nothing will be ‘bad enough’ for the lefties.


9 posted on 05/05/2008 11:16:23 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (Conservatives are to McCain what Charlie Brown is to Lucy.)
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To: Dawnsblood
The UN still has a purpose.

It's a forum from where leaders can address the world.

They do “some” humanitarian things well.

It's a body that has done some good concerning international issues such as trade......


The significant thing to remember with the UN is that while they have a purpose, they are neither capable nor do their interests coincide with ours in many cases. It's the epitome of a bureaucracy. Once a noble organization representing the moral high ground and human rights, this organization has degenerated as membership extended to include every Middle Eastern, African, Asian, and Tin Pot Latin American nation. Today the UN is a farce, a place where dictators come together and discuss torture or human rights. It's a place where nations harboring and fueling transnational terrorists sit on pannels "discussing" it, and I'm not over exaggerating. It's an organization which has redefined it meanings of what human rights are so that oppression of woman can be legitimate after all........

The UN is a great organization. As long as people know what it is and where it stands and limit it's influence it's OK. As long as the UN is not directing US economic and security policies it's a great way to work humanitarian issues in Africa or Asia, but do NOT let the scope of this organization creep.

10 posted on 05/05/2008 11:17:52 AM PDT by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: Eurale
U.N. out of the U.S
U.S. out of the U.N

11 posted on 05/05/2008 11:17:56 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (Hillary = Senator Incitatus, Clintigula's whore...er, horse.)
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To: Non-Sequitur

Hang the treaty. Throw them out.


12 posted on 05/05/2008 11:19:15 AM PDT by Crazieman (Vote Juan McAmnesty in 2008! Because freedom abroad is more important than freedom at home!)
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To: Ouderkirk
Anyone remember Pat Buchanan's Reform Party nomination speech?

"We will reclaim every lost ounce of American sovereignty. We will lead this country out of the WTO, out of the IMF, and I will personally tell Kofi Annan: Your UN lease has run out; you will be moving out of the United States, and if you are not gone by year's end, I will send you ten thousand Marines to help you pack your bags. "

Say what you will about Pat Buchanan, but more of our "leaders" should have the gonads to stand up to these UN bassturds.

13 posted on 05/05/2008 11:23:33 AM PDT by workerbee (Ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them.)
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To: Non-Sequitur

Do we have to provide them with power, light, water, gas, sewer, phones, data lines, cable, etc., or even allow it them connections?


14 posted on 05/05/2008 11:27:22 AM PDT by Little Ray (I'm a Conservative. But I can vote for John McCain. If I have to. I guess.)
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To: Little Ray
Do we have to provide them with power, light, water, gas, sewer, phones, data lines, cable, etc., or even allow it them connections?

Unfortunately yes, so long as they pay their bill.

15 posted on 05/05/2008 11:37:04 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur

Darn. Oh, well.

We’ll just have to drum up grounds to nullify the treaty. Does the UN have any treaty obligations, when they are failing to meet?


16 posted on 05/05/2008 11:51:06 AM PDT by Little Ray (I'm a Conservative. But I can vote for John McCain. If I have to. I guess.)
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To: Little Ray
Does the UN have any treaty obligations, when they are failing to meet?

Well they're an international agency founded to promote cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. I think a case can be made that they're failing to meet all of them.

17 posted on 05/05/2008 12:10:32 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur

Well thar ya go! Give ‘em an ultimatum “Meet Treaty Obligations or Else!” then kick ‘em out and seize their assets when they fail.


18 posted on 05/05/2008 12:12:56 PM PDT by Little Ray (I'm a Conservative. But I can vote for John McCain. If I have to. I guess.)
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To: Dawnsblood

Dictator protection league.


19 posted on 05/05/2008 12:13:35 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (The average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. - Ratatouille)
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