Having learned nothing from Woodrow Wilson’s failure, Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed hard to create the United Nations, a legacy taken up upon his death by Harry Truman. It is time to take the lead in the creation of an international organization of exclusively democratic nations. It is time to toss the U.N. on the ash heap of history where it can join the League of Nations.
The League of Nations came into being after its constitution was adopted at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The Peace Conference, as it turned out, was little more than a prelude to World War II, punishing Germany for having started World War I and divvying up the Ottoman Empire under the assumption that the West could do whatever it wanted with the rest of the world.
By 1939, a resentful Germany started WWII and these days the world’s attention is fixed on a block of Middle East nations that were the literal invention of those demented diplomats who put together nations like Iraq and Jordan by drawing lines on a map. The League of Nations stopped holding meetings during WWII and, on April 18, 1946, transferred its assets to the newly minted United Nations.
It had taken a scant 27 years for it to die of its own ineptitude. The United States never joined because it did not want to cede its sovereignty to an international body whose actions might conflict with our Constitution. Having learned nothing from Woodrow Wilson’s failure, Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed hard to create the United Nations, a legacy taken up upon his death by Harry Truman.
Other than some successes dealing with aid to refugees and famine relief, the League of Nations was most notably unable to stop nations from going to war with one another. Its most potent weapon was the use of boycotts. Today’s United Nations depends mostly on “sanctions” or “resolutions” issued by the Security Council.
These days the Security Council includes the United States and three other permanent members with veto powers, France, China and Russia, each of which is intent on thwarting the ambitions of the Bush administration to expand democracy throughout the world. It was this same Security Council that issued seventeen resolutions warning Saddam Hussein of dire consequences if he did not heed their demands to stop trying to stockpile weapons of mass destruction.
Through the humanitarian Oil for Food program, Saddam managed to bribe France and Russia, with China going along, to ignore his massive looting of the program in order to build more luxurious palaces and give grants to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, among a long list of criminal acts that were finally ended when the United States military drove into downtown Baghdad. We killed both his evil sons and hauled him out of a hole in the ground.
In his book, “The U.N. Exposed: How the United Nations Sabotages America’s Security”, Eric Shawn, a senior correspondent and anchor for the Fox News Channel, takes the reader behind the scenes to reveal an utterly corrupt international institution. Like its predecessor, the League of Nations, the U.N. has demonstrated the maniacal insanity of expecting nations to cooperate with one another for any other reason than self-interest.
“The United Nations has proven that it does not have the backbone to stand against tyrants, that its members abuse its systems for short-term gain, that it is careless with the money it’s given, that its employees and contractors cannot be wholly trusted to execute its lofty ambitions, and that even its humanitarian efforts are undermined and shortchanged as a result,” says Shawn. If it were a private corporation, it would be deemed a criminal enterprise.
Moreover, since all 191 member-nations have a vote in the General Assembly equal to the U.S., there is a farcical aspect to the fact that it is the money provided by U.S. taxpayers that largely keeps the institution functioning. “The 2005 U.N. assessment for the United States stood at $2.2 billion, and that figure is pushed skyward by funding for U.N.-related development banks, resulting in a total of $3.7 billion,” notes Shawn. The poorest member-nation can buy in for a mere $17,795 in annual dues.
What does the United Nations want today? More money! “The major financial goal of the millennium plan is the requirement that wealthy nations commit to spending 0.7 percent of their gross national product for development in the third world by channeling the billions through the U.N. system.” Shawn notes that, “Over years, the potential for graft and abuse could dwarf what Saddam achieved by perverting the Oil for Food program.”
Not only has the United Nations proved itself to be incapable of mediating the avoidance of armed conflicts throughout the world, it has also distinguished itself by becoming the most corrupt and criminal organization on the face of the Earth.
It is time to end U.S. participation, i.e., funding, in the United Nations, and time, at the very least, to invite it to relocate somewhere else. Anywhere else will do.
It is time to formally withdraw from the vast matrix of U.N. treaties and protocols that already impose themselves on U.S. sovereignty.
It is time to take the lead in the creation of an international organization of exclusively democratic nations. It is time to toss the U.N. on the ash heap of history where it can join the League of Nations.
Alan Caruba passed on June 15, 2015. His keen wit, intellect, and desire to see that "right" be done will be missed by all who his life touched. His archives will remain available online at this site.
Alan Caruba was the founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns designed to influence public opinion and policy. A veteran public relations counselor and professional writer, Caruba emerged as a conservative voice through his weekly column, "Warning Signs", posted on the Center's Internet site (www.anxietycenter.com) and widely excerpted on leading sites including this one.
A member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and a charter member of the National Book Critics Circle, Caruba applied a wide-ranging knowledge of business, science, history and other topics to his examination of issues that included protecting our national sovereignty, environment and immigration, education and international affairs.
Caruba resided in New Jersey and had served in the US Army, had been an advisor to corporations, trade associations, universities, and others who used his public relations skills for many years. He maintained a business site at www.caruba.com.
Caruba performed many reviews of both fiction and non-fiction at Bookviews.Com, a popular site for news about books of merit that do not necessarily make it to the mainstream bestseller lists.
Cover
•
Commentary
•
Books & Reviews
•
Climate Change
•
Site Links
•
Feedback
