G1223, on May 24 2007, 11:44 AM, said:
Hard to undermine something that allowed 'Ethnic Cleansing' in Bosnia and Rwanda. That sent a weak limp wristed finger shake at China over the killing of students over deacade ago.
Yeah the Leauge of uselss Nations mkII has done so well without US help. I see them going far with Dafur. That is if you expect to see the Muslim militais getting to kill more people. Or simply enslave them.
As has been said numerous times - the UN is unable to do any of what it could and should do if the sovereign nations of the world don't want to do it. Strong US diplomacy, as a
permanent member of the security council (if you were looking for special treatment - there it is - only 5 nations, so far as I understand it, have PERMANENT status) to lead the world to effective peace-keeping, is 100% necessary, as is US funding (higher than other nations in the same way that rich people's taxes wind up being more than other people's taxes). We don't get to have it both ways. If we want the UN to succeed, we in the US must insist upon our elected officials using the US influence in the UN more effectively and responsibly. We are only one voice in the UN, but we are one of the MOST authoritative voices in the UN - so UN failures in peacekeeping are at least partially our fault.
Some of the world's anger with the US over Iraq is the US decision to go at it without the blessings of the Security Council. I remember the debates and the UN scandal that eroded public opinion of the UN in dealing with Iraq, and I remember France's dirty hands on the subject (also Russia, IIRC). For all of that - given the US influence - it is not unreasonable to state that we could have pushed a lot harder diplomatically, to create a viable UN-aided solution.
Now that Bush wants UN involvement, it seems that people are willing to consider it - albeit while holding their noses. I think it might be a good time to get a good look at just what the US's position in the UN is - how the US supports it and influences it - so that we can see a bit more clearly that UN success and UN failure are things that the US shares responsibility and credit for.
QT