We should get rid of the UN

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Aleph-Null RE:We should get rid of the UN 1/29/2005 12:04:50 PM

The ridiculous idea that the United Nations would somehow be a staging ground for anti-Americanism after the U.S. left is one of the most laughable propositions I have ever heard. The fact of the matter is that if the U.S. pulled out, other nations would pull out as well. Sure, some nations would try to use it as a staging ground, but lets be realistic. The United Nations does not have the political clout nor has it won the hearts and minds of many nations in the world. The United States could easily withdraw, and with that withdraw, Japan would withdraw as well. The United Nations is already a strapped for cash organization which is why it engages in these desperate financial frauds. Minus Japan and the United States the United Nations would collapse immediately. Furthermore, as we know, the Security Council resolutions would be meaningless without the United States to back them up. So, no threat from them. Russia, China would likewise disband and the organization would be kept afloat only by the Europeans who would try to use it to control their former colonies in the Middle East and Africa. That wouldn't last long at all. In my honest estimation, any American found contributing to United Nations development should be considered a threat to peace & liberty. Furthermore, Americans from Texas to California to New York looking for an international organization should recognize as I did recently that the answer we're looking for is staring us right in the face. If we want an international organization we know will work, we can always facilitate the membership of new states in the United States.

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PlatypusMaximus Saddam's $2m offer to WMD inspector 3/13/2005 7:26:43 PM

Saddam's $2m offer to WMD inspector By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 12/03/2005) Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction. link

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PlatypusMaximus RE:We should get rid of the UN 3/15/2005 9:45:26 PM

JED BABBIN The unfixable UN By Jed Babbin | March 15, 2005 IN ''BLAZING SADDLES" -- probably the funniest movie ever made -- one of the characters Mel Brooks plays is the sexually preoccupied and utterly corrupt Governor LePetomaine. In one scene, the governor, worried about a failing scam, shouts to his assembled cronies that they've got to find a way to save their phony-baloney jobs. Which brings us to Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN. Scandal piles on top of scandal, minor officials resign, investigations drag on, and Annan is under personal attack for failing to prevent the enormous corruption that's occurred on his watch. But Annan has nothing to fear. The widespread calls for UN ''reform" all aim at changing small problems. Not even its most diehard supporter -- Kofi Annan himself -- denies that the UN has enormous problems. Its bureaucracy, bloated and overpaid, is not a source of solutions to the world's problems or even the means by which solutions can be implemented. Its membership, with fewer than 50 democracies among its 191 members, is not capable of working in good faith toward solving the problems of our time. Americans don't spend a lot of time thinking about the UN. It's something we expect our elected leaders to do. When we do think about it, as the latest Rasmussen poll shows, only about 37 percent of us have a positive opinion of the UN; 63 percent believe Kofi Annan should resign; and among those who follow the news closely, 72 percent believe Saddam Hussein used the UN Oil for Food program to bribe other nations to get their support in the UN. If more people knew what the UN is doing to influence our lives and freedoms, the percentage of anti-UN feeling among Americans would have been much higher. It's important to understand what the UN means to us as individuals. The UN pokes its nose into anything and everything. Do you have a family member in the armed forces? If so, you should be grateful that President Bush ''un-signed" the UN agreement creating the International Criminal Court. That court wants to take jurisdiction over every American soldier (and government officials) to subject them to war crimes trials in a highly politicized setting. Do you use the Internet for your business or to get news and information? In November, the UN ''World Summit on the Information Society" will meet to decide if the third world nations (most of which want to deny freedom of the press and freedom of expression) will control the Internet. Does your family own guns? If so, you should be worried about the UN's international gun control initiatives. Instead of trying to control the smuggling of arms to terrorists, the UN wants to impose European-style gun controls on every nation that doesn't have them. Though no US president -- at least none we've seen so far -- would let it, the UN would impose taxes on air travel, international financial transactions, and even pocket some of the money donated for tsunami relief. America has been the greatest financial supporter of the UN since its creation. We now send about $7 billion a year in dues and contributions to many of its agencies. In return, we get the massive corruption that pervades the UN system, endless anti-Americanism in the General Assembly, and UN initiatives that infringe on our personal freedoms, our ability to trade with other nations, and on our nation's sovereignty. There is no way to fix the UN, because to do so would require that the votes of the despots and dictators be taken away and the democracies who are routinely outvoted and shouted down be the only voting members. There's only one solution to the problems of the UN: America must leave and form a new organization of democracies to try to deal with the problems we face together. Jed Babbin, former undersecretary of defense for President George H.W. Bush, is author of ''Inside the Asylum: Why the U.N. and Old Europe are Worse Than You Think." © Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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PlatypusMaximus RE:We should get rid of the UN 3/17/2005 9:35:00 PM

link March 17, 2005 Edition > Section: New York > Printer-Friendly Version Annan's Bow at Arafat's Grave Sparks Outrage in City BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun March 17, 2005 URL: link U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to lay a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat while on his way to the dedication of a Holocaust museum in Israel is infuriating New York politicians and Jewish leaders, some of whom are labeling Mr. Annan's gesture "outrageous," "grotesque," and an example of "mindless incompetence." The secretary-general joined world leaders in Israel on Tuesday to commemorate the opening of a new Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. His visit Monday to Mr. Arafat's grave rankled some representatives of the United Nations' host city, who said Mr. Annan had damaged the world body's already poor public image and may have further imperiled U.N. plans to expand into neighboring parts of Turtle Bay. Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, a Democrat who represent parts pf Brooklyn and Queens in Congress, said yesterday: "It is almost grotesque to travel to Israel to pay tribute to the 6 million Jews massacred in the Shoah and use the opportunity to pay tribute to a terrorist who is responsible for murdering thousands more." "Just when I think the U.N. and its leadership had reached a new low," Mr. Weiner added, "I am reminded that when it comes to Israel, and sensitivity toward the Jewish community, there is no bottom to their pit." Many of Mr. Weiner's fellow congressmen from the New York metropolitan area echoed his sentiments. Rep. Peter King, a Republican of Long Island, said yesterday that Mr. Annan "is the worst type of world leader. He's arrogant and tone deaf; considering all that's gone down in the U.N., for him to be commemorating Arafat in this way is incredibly insensitive." "I have said for months now that Kofi Annan should step aside," Mr. King added. "For a person who's supposed to be a world-class diplomat, he's showing an amazing lack of skills." Mr. Annan is also harming the organization for which he is responsible, according to Rep. Vito Fossella, a Republican of Staten Island. "I'm disappointed that Annan chose to honor Arafat when he could have spent his time more productively. The U.N. remains unwilling to make the distinction between forces of good and bad. This has damaged its credibility and detracted from its mission of promoting democracy and freedom," Mr. Fossella said in a statement to The New York Sun yesterday. Long Island Democratic congressman Steven Israel, too, issued a statement to the Sun: "It's outrageous that on his trip to Israel to attend the opening ceremonies for the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial's new museum, Annan went out of his way to visit the grave of a man who murdered countless Jews." To Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Mr. Annan's tribute to Arafat was symptomatic of the anti-Semitism ailing his organization. "A lot of what is wrong with the U.N. is nicely summed up by the fact that Kofi Annan, who goes to Israel to participate in the dedication of a memorial museum to Jewish victims of the Holocaust, lays a wreath at the grave of someone whose career was murdering Jewish civilians," Mr. Nadler said. One of the city's representatives in Albany, State Senator Martin Golden, Republican of Brooklyn, expressed weary disappointment in Mr. Annan. "I can't honestly tell you I'm surprised," Mr. Golden said, adding: "If anyone's looking for a set of reasons why Kofi Annan should step down ... here's another perfect example of mindless incompetence." Mr. Golden is one of the state senators thwarting the United Nations' ambitions to renovate and expand its headquarters in Manhattan. He has said on multiple occasions that his opposition to the project would dissipate were Mr. Annan to resign. For the time being, however, Mr. Annan appears firmly planted in his post. The U.N.'s public image has suffered amid scandals over corruption in the oil-for-food program for Iraq and reports of rape by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo. Some of the staff at the level beneath the secretary-general has changed amid vows by the U.N. to improve its relations with Washington and its image with ordinary Americans. Mr. Golden, however, said that wasn't enough: "We need to clean house at the top," he said, adding that the Arafat tribute showed how, despite recent gestures, what's going on in Turtle Bay is just "more of the same." Mr. Golden was not alone in his assessment that the Arafat tribute would endanger the world body's attempts to upgrade its facilities. "If I have anything to say about it, Kofi Annan is going to have to answer for these types of things before a spade is put in the ground on a U.N. expansion, and we as New Yorkers should use every opportunity we can to express how outrageous we think their behavior ha

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PlatypusMaximus RE:We should get rid of the UN 3/18/2005 12:03:34 AM

Whistle-blower: 'Gaping holes' in oil-for-food link A former United Nations monitor of the organization's oil-for-food program in Iraq told a congressional committee Thursday that the program had "gaping holes" and that large amounts of aid never reached the Iraqi people. Mullick told the subcommittee that he repeatedly alerted U.N. officials of problems he observed but was rebuffed. "Each suggestion resulted in my supervisors reducing my job responsibilities," Mullick said. "This continued to occur until my only job was to run the slide projector at staff meetings."

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Schackleford RE:We should get rid of the UN 6/18/2005 2:34:42 PM

THAT would be one first class mistake,like when the US decided to support Khmer Rouge just because they were "anti-vietnamese"! The UN is far (FAR!) from being perfect, but it has been an international forum and as such is a priceless tool in foreing policy. I know the Bush administration is talking about "unilateralism" as an alternative, but it is little more then a cover for them failing to persuade the rest of the world to support their plans. The UN is still the best hope for a chaotic world.

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Admiral Kirk RE:We should get rid of the UN 8/21/2005 3:43:27 PM

OMG, The UN is the most corrupt entity in the world. Worse than ENRON. Dudes, the whole UN needs to be disbanded. Too many corrupt countries.

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