Posted on 03/17/2003 8:25:42 AM PST by ConservativeVoice
The Future of the UN: Geneva
By Tov B. Brog
March 16th 2003 - President Bush, get the US out of the UN!
Here's an international body actively sabotaging our efforts to defend ourselves, all the while depending on this country for a home, 25% of its budget and, ultimately, its legitimacy.
The UN creates artificial stumbling blocks to the legitimate self-defense of member states that abide by its outdated pie-in-the-sky charter. Outlaw states such Iraq, or Libya can ignore its edicts at will - and still get to chair this laughable organization's disarmament and human rights commissions. Law abiding nations find themselves in endless consultations with such august international players as Chile, Cameroon, Guinea and Angola.
What a joke!
The UN concept is deeply flawed. We consult with our friends. We negotiate with our enemies. If necessary, we fight them. Insofar as the UN facilitates consultation and negotiation, it may have some value. However, in today's world, why do we need a forum like the UN to do either of these? Phone calls, video conferencing, digital connections of all kinds and fast air travel allow leaders to be in touch with each other instantaneously. The UN was formed when communication was still difficult and there was perceived value in having a physical location where nations could station permanent delegations. That is no longer necessary. Neither is it advisable, given the composition of both the General Assembly and the Security Council.
The Security Council is a relic of the Second World War. In the midst of that war, we made common cause with all its members. Today, three of the four do not share our goals, nor do they care about our well being as a nation. So, why should we hold to a structure that demands our obeisance to China, Russia and France when they clearly have an interest in a weakened United States?
The UN as peacekeeper is an unremitting failure.
Just look at recent history.
In 1967, Egypt ordered UN forces out of the Sinai to clear the way for an attack on Israel. Then Secretary General of the UN, U-Thant, agreed. The Six day war was the result.
From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot killed more than 2 million of his own Cambodian countrymen. The UN did nothing.
In 1994, the UN withdrew its forces from Rwanda, facilitating the genocidal killing of over 800,000 people.
In 1995, UN forces stood by as 7,000 Bosnians were massacred in Srebrenica, in the heart of a UN-declared safe haven.
In 2000, three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped while on patrol on their side of the Lebanese border, by Hizbollah guerillas. UN soldiers did nothing. In fact, several of them took video footage of the attack, as if it was some kind of tourist show. Kofi Anan at first denied the existence of the tapes, then acknowledged them, but allowed Israel, and the victims' families, to see only a highly edited version.
The composition of the UN itself is antithetical to the defense of freedom. Of the 189 member nations, only 82 have anything resembling a stable democracy. That is, they have free elections, a free press, freedom of assembly and they protect their citizens' right to free expression. That means a substantial majority of the UN's membership is made up of regimes who feel their very existence is threatened by the natural consequence of our strength and moral authority: the spread of freedom as a means to stability and prosperity throughout the world.
For the US, and other free nations, to subject herself to the UN on any issue that bears on our defense or economic health is a betrayal of our constitution.
We should not wish to associate ourselves with the UN's record of failure. Why taint ourselves?
We should never acquiesce to a body that clearly does not speak for the values we hold dear.
We should never consult with an organization that forces us to act only on the unanimous consent of nations, such as France, China and Russia, that see our success as a threat to themselves.
So, after the recent debacle over Iraq, where the true colors of the UN have become so abundantly clear, the US should
Withdraw from the United Nations;
Stop paying our 25% share of the UN's budget;
Revoke the UN's diplomatic privileges in the US and
Recommend that they set up shop in Geneva, the former home of The League of Nations, where, if there is any justice in this universe, they'll suffer that unlamented body's ignominious fate.
For the future of this country, and our ideals, we have to extricate ourselves from this house of shame as quickly as possible.
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