The United Nations is a Farce
The latest news is that WE will get to pay “our share” (22%) of the $1.9 BILLION cost to renovate the United Nations building in New York City. That’s $418 MILLION dollars. That’s also the “projected cost” of the five year project… and I’ll be absolutely amazed if it is done within budget. In other words, I’m betting the cost will be higher. Any takers?
The U.N. is arguably one of the most useless organizations the United States supports. Since its inception, it has exhibited little ability to accomplish the goals of its charter:
- prevent war
- enhance human rights
- enforce treaties
- promote freedom
You can find multiple examples where it has failed on every count. Admittedly, it’s a difficult (if not impossible) task to bring all the nations of this world together in agreement with each other, but they cannot even enforce their own sanctions on member countries who have violated agreements made WITH the U.N. itself.
The relatively recent “oil-for-food” scandal gives some insight into the way the U.N. functions. The independent investigation lead by Paul Volker concluded that there was, indeed, mismanagement and corruption. He also found that this was not an isolated incident, there are flaws throughout the U.N. system, and recommended reforms… most significantly, outside auditing of U.N. programs. BUT, the U.N. Budget Committee has rejected such reforms in a vote of nearly two to one.
We’ve all seen how some large organizations have deservedly crumbled due to corruption… think of Enron and WorldCom. How can the U.N. continue to operate with known problems? And why should we continue to support it?
I won’t even address the fact that the U.N. has morphed into a hypocritical organization that takes every opportunity to criticize the United States while turning a blind eye to some truly horrific actions by other members. That will have to be another discussion.
While I believe the U.S. should be a leader in trying to bring the nations of the world together… and I see a place for an organization that helps facilitate that effort… I don’t see the point of being part of an ineffective organization that is known to be corrupt and is consciously choosing NOT to take positive steps to address the problems.
Since our country contributes the most financial support to the U.N., we DO have some leverage and could insist on changes if we wanted to. It seems, however, WE choose to try to “get along” and are not applying as much pressure as we could. So, is the U.N. now to blame for these problems… or are WE to blame?
