What will Bolton Do to/for the UN?

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vern humphrey:
If you’re wary of reform, then you’re stuck with repeats of the oil-for-food scandal, anti-semitism, and totalitiarian regimes.
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I remember when conservatives could tell the difference between totalitatian and authoritarian regimes.
 
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jlw:
Hate is such a strong word. But Do you hate corruption?? Hate appeasing “bad guys”, while easily criticizing the “good guys”?? Hate waste and bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake?? Hate all talk-no action?? Hate credit-taking bureaucrats who arrive after the work has been finished?? Hate anti-semitism?? Hate meetings to set up more meetings??? Hate conference calls designed to tell us what we already know??? Hate people telling you how to fix what ain’t broke??

I don’t think they hate the UN, I think they hate what the UN has become.
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I’m talking about people who hate the entire concept of the UN. I grew up in the midwest - I’ve met these people. They’re convinced the UN is a world government that’s going to take away American sovreignty and do…something generally involved with the Book of Revelations and other stuff. It goes downhill from there.

I always thought these people were just nutcases…but I’m having a hard time separting the rightwing mainstream from the rightwing crazies these days. I still think this represents the far right of conservatism, I’m just not quite as confident of this anymore.
 
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gnjsdad:
I remember when conservatives could tell the difference between totalitatian and authoritarian regimes.
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I remember when there was a difference. That day is long past.
 
The UN is losing it’s respect all over the world. How many more scandal do we need before we pull out of it? The moment that the US went into Iraq the UN lost all face. The UN believes in appeasement but that doesn’t work. It didn’t work with Hitler and it didn’t work In south America and it doesn’t work in the middle East or Africa or in Asia. If you are going to put sanctions on people you better be willing to back it up. One can’t call Wolf all the time and then be shocked that no one listens to you. The UN and the world should have step in with Iraq the moment we heard about possible mass graves and genocide. The Iraq people have a reason to be upset with us. We didn’t as a world stand up for their Right of Life. We left them alone because we didn’t want to rock the boat. I for one might start believing in the UN again if they can fix the human rights commission. Have you seen who sits on it? unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/chrmem.htm UGH!!!

God Bless,

Beckers
 
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beckers:
The UN is losing it’s respect all over the world. How many more scandal do we need before we pull out of it? The moment that the US went into Iraq the UN lost all face. The UN believes in appeasement but that doesn’t work. It didn’t work with Hitler and it didn’t work In south America and it doesn’t work in the middle East or Africa or in Asia. If you are going to put sanctions on people you better be willing to back it up. One can’t call Wolf all the time and then be shocked that no one listens to you. The UN and the world should have step in with Iraq the moment we heard about possible mass graves and genocide. The Iraq people have a reason to be upset with us. We didn’t as a world stand up for their Right of Life. We left them alone because we didn’t want to rock the boat. I for one might start believing in the UN again if they can fix the human rights commission. Have you seen who sits on it? unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/chrmem.htm UGH!!!

God Bless,

Beckers
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The UN is at least in part, a racket – a way for crooks and grifters to get rich on human misery. For the UN to be what its founders hoped, it must be cleaned up – the bureaucracy has to be cleaned out, and high standards established and enforced.

How to do that is problematic – but we can start by appointing an ambassador who doesn’t wear blinders and who is willing to try.
 
vern humphrey:
The UN is at least in part, a racket – a way for crooks and grifters to get rich on human misery. For the UN to be what its founders hoped, it must be cleaned up – the bureaucracy has to be cleaned out, and high standards established and enforced.

How to do that is problematic – but we can start by appointing an ambassador who doesn’t wear blinders and who is willing to try.
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And, how is he or any other ambassador going to clean out the bureaucracy, establish standards, etc. on his own? The UN ambassador can’t do it on his own, least of all if he’s the sort who is going to antagonize any others who might otherwise be willing to help.
 
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Richardols:
And, how is he or any other ambassador going to clean out the bureaucracy, establish standards, etc. on his own? The UN ambassador can’t do it on his own, least of all if he’s the sort who is going to antagonize any others who might otherwise be willing to help.
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So we should send an ambassador who will look the other way, play get-along-gang, and wink at corruption?

Our ambassador is our voice in the UN – he speaks with the authority of the United States, and he can use the leverage of the United States to bring about reform.
 
vern humphrey:
So we should send an ambassador who will look the other way, play get-along-gang, and wink at corruption?
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No, we don’t need the other extreme either.
Our ambassador is our voice in the UN – he speaks with the authority of the United States, and he can use the leverage of the United States to bring about reform.
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Do we have any leverage there? Good luck!
 
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Richardols:
No, we don’t need the other extreme either.
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Sort of like saying we should have sent a middle-of-the-road Treasury Special Agent to head up the Chicago office instead of Elliot Ness.
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Richardols:
Do we have any leverage there? Good luck!
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Take a look at the percentage of the UN budget that comes from the United States.

But if we have no leverage at the UN, and can’t clean it up – why stay a member?
 
We could send Darth Vader to the UN and it wouldn’t make a difference in the slightest. It is an insignificant, morally-defunct organization that is taking up valuable commercial space in downtown Manhattan.
 
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Scott_Lafrance:
…It is an insignificant, morally-defunct organization that is taking up valuable commercial space in downtown Manhattan.
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And you wonder why I have doubts that those speaking of UN “reform” do so in good faith. Reform needs someone who is strongly committed to the mission of the UN, and who seeks to reform it by challenging it to live up to its own mission, not someone who simply wishes to destroy it. I honestly don’t know if the administration wants to reform the UN, or merely wants to marginalize it, but comments such as this increase my doubts.

Also, before we all pile up on the UN, let’s remember that it does, in fact, do quite a bit of good and thus it is well worth it to reform it. As I pointed out in another post, it does a decent job at limited nationbuilding missions, among other things. A recent study by the RAND Corporation studying peacekeeping missions concludes that “assuming adequate consensus among Security Council members on the purpose for any intervention, the United Nations provides the most suitable institutional framework for most nation-building missions, one with a comparatively low cost structure, a comparatively high success rate, and the greatest degree of international legitimacy.”

Full details at rand.org/publications/MG/MG304/. (Thanks to the June issue of The Atlantic for drawing attention to this study)
 
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