H
HagiaSophia
Guest
Columnist Cal Thomas asks:
What is the United States getting for its money? We pay 22 percent of the U.N. budget, but get 100 percent of the grief from nations who hate us and what we stand for. The League of Nations failed for many of the same reasons the U.N. is failing. The League and the U.N. are based on a flawed philosophy that believes humans are basically good. There is ample contemporary and historical evidence to the contrary.
John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced that he is leaving after just five months in the job. This kind and decent man saw firsthand the futility of trying to persuade the U.N. to stop the genocide in Sudan. In a conversation with Jon Sawyer of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Danforth spoke of his success in getting the Security Council to meet in Nairobi to discuss Sudan. Representatives of the Sudanese government and the main rebel group signed a memorandum promising to conclude final peace talks by Dec. 31.
Yet, as Danforth thought about his recent diplomatic trip to Nairobi to negotiate a deal between rebels and the Sudanese government, he seemed to be more aware than ever of the U.N.'s shortcomings. “What’s the Security Council?” he said to Sawyer. “It is the only real power within the United Nations and it’s a very weak power.” The council’s strength, he said, is “the ability to put real problems front and center,” but the body’s weakness - its system of vetoes and super majorities - prevents it from using its power to “actually act.”
jewishworldreview.com/cols/thomas1.asp
What is the United States getting for its money? We pay 22 percent of the U.N. budget, but get 100 percent of the grief from nations who hate us and what we stand for. The League of Nations failed for many of the same reasons the U.N. is failing. The League and the U.N. are based on a flawed philosophy that believes humans are basically good. There is ample contemporary and historical evidence to the contrary.
John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced that he is leaving after just five months in the job. This kind and decent man saw firsthand the futility of trying to persuade the U.N. to stop the genocide in Sudan. In a conversation with Jon Sawyer of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Danforth spoke of his success in getting the Security Council to meet in Nairobi to discuss Sudan. Representatives of the Sudanese government and the main rebel group signed a memorandum promising to conclude final peace talks by Dec. 31.
Yet, as Danforth thought about his recent diplomatic trip to Nairobi to negotiate a deal between rebels and the Sudanese government, he seemed to be more aware than ever of the U.N.'s shortcomings. “What’s the Security Council?” he said to Sawyer. “It is the only real power within the United Nations and it’s a very weak power.” The council’s strength, he said, is “the ability to put real problems front and center,” but the body’s weakness - its system of vetoes and super majorities - prevents it from using its power to “actually act.”
jewishworldreview.com/cols/thomas1.asp
