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Thursday, November 11, 2004 

All Bark and No Bite

Well, we know they don't pay their parking tickets in New York City. Several UN countries also have a problem paying property taxes to the city of New York...some countries owing millions in back taxes to the city of New York.(http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/245649p-210219c.html) They have lofty plans. The UN writes volumes of text about what they plan to do. They seem to have a major problem in actually implementing their plans.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road to peace and security seems to be obstructed by reams of paperwork and UN ambassadors who see the UN as a Snitch & Bitch coffee klatch rather than a productive organization committed to stopping wars and keeping people safe.

They said it themselves in Article I of the UN Charter...

The Purposes of the United Nations are:
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.


You be the judge to see if they've done their job and fulfilled the first article.

Let's start with Rwanda. 1994. 600,000 civilians slaughtered in a matter of weeks. General Dallaire of Canada repeatedly asked the UN for more reinforcements. Their response was to withdraw more forces. What did the UN do to prevent it?

Sierra Leone. Over 10,000 and possibly up to 40,000 civilians had their hands cut off by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in an effort to hamper their efforts to vote in the elections. (http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/762c22f18353b3edc12567a90053abca?OpenDocument) The Economist also wrote an article on it as well. What did the UN do to prevent it?

Serbian-Bosnian war. The Srebernica massacre. Thousands of Bosnian muslims died at the hands of the Serbs. The US intervened after the conflict had started. Carla del Ponte did manage to get to Milosevic to trial in the Hague in 2002. He's still on trial...two years later.

Iraq. No explanation needed. 10 years of sanctions and countless resolutions didn't stop this war.

The Sudan. Thousands of women are being systematically raped and driven out of their homes. They've sent envoys to talk to the government and told the Sudanese to behave themselves. Did it work? "About 1.5 million who have fled their homes during more than 20 months of fighting in the arid western region of Sudan, creating what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis."--Reuters Nov. 11

The UN is a toothless dog barking away but no one is listening.

Norm...thanks for the tip on the book. I'll see if I can hunt it down...especially if it contains dirt on a useless institution. You can never have too many books like that in your library.

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