By Michael Taube
Toronto Sun
December 28, 2004
Most people know this line from the movie Field of Dreams, �If you build it, they will come.� Try using that line with the United Nations, and it could come out like this, �If you re-build it, why would they bother to come?�
Last week, a UN panel issued a report entitled �A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility.� This panel provided 101 recommendations to improve the UN in terms of economic concerns, internal violence and terrorism. The UN will be taking this report under consideration in 2005.
But when it comes to reforming the UN, this report is too little, too late.
Established on Oct. 24, 1945 from the rubble of its predecessor, the League of Nations, the UN attempted to create peace and harmony among western nations and communist dictatorships. The best way to wade through international disputes, the member nations charged, was through diplomacy. Resolutions of disputes through a war of words, rather than blood and violence, would promote democracy, freedom and international security.
Did the UN accomplish its lofty goals? It created that illusion by supporting positions like the growth of democracy, human rights legislation (The U.N is a militant crusader of such "human rights" as abortion and sodomy - RJ), improvements to the financial situation in poor countries, and the establishment of the State of Israel.
If you dig a little deeper, however, the harsh reality is that the UN is, and has always been, an abysmal failure.
The UN�s agenda has been usurped by dictatorships, despots and deviants. The UN has been heavily critical of the U.S., most western nations, Judeo-Christian values (Right on, Michael! - RJ) and, interestingly, Israel. The UN also has little regard for international law, supports undemocratic institutions such as the International Criminal Court, and passes resolution after resolution attacking democratic countries.
Meanwhile, past and present lawless countries have held UN chairs at conferences and committees. Libya, a legendary human rights abuser, actually sits as the chair of the � wait for it - UN Human Rights Commission. Syria, which has engaged in many illegal wars and military strikes, was briefly the chair of the UN Security Council. Moreover, Iran and Iraq were going to co-chair the UN nuclear disarmament in May 2003, and that�s before Saddam Hussein was toppled!
It gets worse when you examine the UN�s record on military matters and peacekeeping.
Here�s a few choice items:
With the exceptions of the Korean War and Iraq�s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the UN has been relatively silent through hundreds of battles.
The UN did nothing to prevent or contain the massacre of 800,000 Rwandans in 1994, or the senseless slaughter of 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1995.
The UN refused to endorse the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003, and instead supported its dithering body of weapons inspectors.
The UN won�t take a forceful stand against the war on terrorism by expelling UN members that politically or financially support terrorist groups.
In a guest column in The Economist, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote that the UN �was born in a very different time and designed for a very different world�it clearly needs far reaching reform if it is to prevent and respond to all the threats that we face today.�
That�s just an excuse. Successful organizations learn how to modify and adapt quickly to a changing world. In nearly 60 years, the UN has not learned how to do this. They don�t deserve another 60 years to figure out what they have done wrong.
It�s time for all fair-minded countries to take a stand and quit the UN. In its place, a League of Democratic Nations should be created. This group�s members would support individual liberty and freedom, emphasize international security and public safety, promote free markets and trade liberalization, and oppose terrorism.
As for countries that don�t support these principles, they would be refused admission until they had sufficiently modified their positions.
If you build a League of Democratic Nations and let the UN die, watch them come.
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