Has the UN ever solved a real crisis?

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PowerPointRanger The Major UN flaw 10/8/2005 3:45:01 AM

The major flaw that will keep the UN from ever living up to it's intended purpose: it is designed to act by concensus, which excludes the decisive actions which are often required.

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HoundOfHello RE:Has the UN ever solved a real crisis? 10/9/2005 9:48:29 PM

What about the Suez Canal crisis in 1957 (I think?). A lot of people say it was the US and USSR's censure of UK and France that stopped the crisis---which is partially true. But Canada's actions in the General Assembly as well as their repeated phone calls to President Eisenhower effectively united the UN against Britain and France. The Anglo-French-Israeli forces were forced to withdraw and were briefly replaced with UN peacekeepers. I think this counts as a brilliant mediation by the UN. -HoH

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flamingknives RE:Yes - sentinel28a 10/19/2005 4:49:56 PM

Was Sierra Leone a UN action? My understanding was that it was British only.

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Liver RE:Yes - flamingknives 11/18/2005 7:59:42 AM

First "west african forces", then UN peacekeepers, then Brits helped out (i'm pretty sure they were counted as un peacekeepers.)

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appleciderus Never solved a crisis, 11/18/2005 8:25:28 PM

but occasionally successful in spite of itself! Swami: There were NO UN ?peacekeepers? in Cambodia. The UN was so ineffectual dealing with Pol Pot that a disgusted North Vietnam intervened. Imagine North Viet Nam interceding in a ?human rights? issue while the UN debated. Millions of innocent dead. Crosshairs: Korea is arguably a UN success, but only because the Soviet Union had walked out of the Security Council over a different issue. They never did that again. BTW, there is today only a ?cease fire? preventing renewed conflict, not a UN negotiated peace. Ilpars: Gulf War I is a prime example of the UN reluctantly dragging its feet. Without US prodding, the UN would still be negotiating Iraq?s withdrawal from Kuwait. However, UN fans can put that one in the ?win? column. Yobbo: East Timor was a UN disaster until Australia stepped in with troops. The UN claims credit, but let us all thank Australia for not waiting as long as North Vietnam waited. Never the less, innocent people died waiting for the UN to save them. Bombard: The UN has not eradicated smallpox. As uncomfortable as this is to say, Louis Pasteur had more to do with eradicating smallpox than Bombard understands. River blindness? Schools? Roads? Wells? Sanitation? Health Care? They are all UN disasters! The money allocated versus the money delivered to programs is felonious. Senator Coleman?s committee reported last month that a $600,000 UN program had a 10 MILLION dollar administrative budget. Where is the ?outrage?? Lebanon, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Liberia? Sound familiar? Of course they do: recent additions to the long list of UN failures, at the cost of thousands of innocent lives. Along with Somalia, Srebinicia, Sudan, slavery, etc..and my favorite: polio. Since the polio vaccine became available in the mid 1950?s the UN has had multiple ?5 year plans? to eradicate polio, the latest goal being 2008(?). The number of worldwide polio victims increased again this year. In fact, US victims are now on the increase because of ?imported? poliovirus. BTW, most of the UN funds for polio eradication come from Rotary International, about 130 million dollars this year alone. (Please see UN administrative costs noted above.) Sentinel: In 1956 the President of Lebanon publicly requested the US, Britain, and France to protect Lebanon from internal political interference by the United Arab Republic. Lebanon then formally complained to the UN Security Council. The UN sent ?observers?. Had the UN been forceful rather than observant, Beirut might still be the ?Pearl of the Orient?. Instead, almost 50 years later, Lebanon is still a disaster as the UN debates the possible involvement of Syria. (Former United Arab Republic) in a political assassination. Pucka: I hope your café romance lasts forever, but your rose colored glasses confuse the UN?s original purpose with its present performance. Phoenix: We agree on many things, but not this. The UN was formed by the victors of WWII in order to prevent another conflict, a conflict they believed to be the fault of the weak League of Nations. The Security Council was composed solely of the victors, who by 1945 were calling themselves the ?United Nations? rather than the ?Allies?. It was not set up as a forum for lesser nations to flex their muscles, but for the ?United Nations? (Allies) to be sure that no nation flexed its muscles but they. Yet, as early as the San Francisco conference in 1945, both Truman and Churchill knew it was a sham as Eastern Europe was swallowed up by Stalin. Then Churchill was gone from the scene. Today, the UN is the image of the prewar League of Nations. (Unfair to the League, which had no opportunity for similar corruption.) The only thing that has saved the world from nuclear conflict to date is the West and the Soviets respecting each other?s ability to fulfill their ?mutual destruction? policies. Even in the ?Cuban Missile? crisis the UN played no role. Today, ?mutual destruction? policies have no benefit with theocratic jihadist Iran, and the UN has been unwilling to be more forceful than it was in Lebanon a half century ago. Warrior: Add to Korea the creation of Israel. Ranger: You understand why the UN is a petrie dish of corruption, but only Security Council consensus was conceived as necessary. Hello?: This is a classic example of how the UN sits on its hands, waits for the outcome, and then claims jurisdiction and credit for success. It was not any nations calls to Eisenhower that effected events. It was Eisenhower?s calls to the Brits and French that changed events. Eisenhower was always cool under stress and I remember only twice seeing his anger publicly visible: with Suez, and in Paris after the U2 incident. He was furious that the US had no warning of the Brits, French and Israeli actions. The UN ?monitors? (not ?peacekeepers?) were documented by media to turn a blind eye to abuses by the Egyptians. I read the stories daily