jbg
Active Member
The United Nations was founded out of the ashes of World War II for the noble purpose of ensuring that the earth would never know war or genocide again. The embers of the Nazi gas chambers were still hot. The barely alive, near corpses of Holocaust survivors staggered in the camps of Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen Belsen, Treblinka and other such place. The Nazis had finished slaughtering millions of people for no other reason than that they didn't fit the definition of "Aryan" (as if Hitler was blond and blue-eyed).
Japanese had just concluded an epic slaughter of Chinese. Numerous Japanese were cremated in the fires of Tokyo, and died in the mushroom clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world literally stank of slaughter and death.
The "solution" to the problems starting WW I hadn't worked. The French, Brits and US levied an oppressive "peace" on the Germans, which meant there was no peace. Not that the Nazis and Communists helped by taking it to the streets. The Middle East went from feudal satrapy under the Ottomans to a tinder box under the League of Nations mandates. Thus, progressives throughout the world united to form the UN out of the ashes of WW II.
Then things went badly wrong. Postage stamp nations were created at a furious pace after the implosion of the British, French, Belgian Portuguese and Dutch empires. The people in their former colonies were left in utter misery. With a few notable exceptions such as, eventually, India, "one man, one vote, one time" ensured that dictators sprung up, destroying whatever spunk and initiative these new nations possessed. Pakistan, much of Africa, and initially India degenerated into war and famine.
The formation of the UN did nothing to solve any of these problems. A corrupt crew of bureaucrats sprang up whose only mission was self-preservation. The dictators of these new countries picked "ambassadors" who got the cushy privilege of living it up in New York City, and running wild. Imagine the heaven of being supported by your own (corrupt) government, being able to amass thousands in unpaid parking tickets, and having as a "job" attending a debating society overlooking the beautiful East River of New York City. Simply irresistible. If is were only the waste involved, the UN would be inexcusable and in need of abolition.
Foreign aid is now largely administered through multilateral, faceless agencies. Thus, people in lands throughout the world can scream "death to the United States" with impunity. The United States is still largely funding the aid, but the check bears the name "United Nations". Thus, the US spends all of the money, receives all of the vilification, gets none of the influence that should come with aid.
Even worse, the aid does not reach the people. Do you really imagine that those pitiful people waving their arms in UNICEF posters really get a penny? No, the money is in their dictators' Swiss bank accounts or at best wasted in the not-for-profits' bureaucracies.
The Western nations get the distinction of being pilloried for relatively minor transgressions Meanwhile, unabated by the UN, slaughters continue in Rwanda, Sudan, Burundi, et. al. Mosques in Yemen explode. ISIS cuts off peoples' heads. The UN does nothing about Robert Mugabe's destruction of Zimbabwe, once a comfortable, middle class land. The UN grinds out a diet of one-sided resolutions against Israel, while ignoring the constant atrocities in Arab lands. Where is the U.N. when it comes to the continuing persecution of Christians in Pakistan, Libya, Syria and the Islamic State?
The UN is wasting money that ought to benefit the unfortunate. It is worse than the most reactionary conservative dreams that George Wallace or Ross Barnett could dream up.
Japanese had just concluded an epic slaughter of Chinese. Numerous Japanese were cremated in the fires of Tokyo, and died in the mushroom clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world literally stank of slaughter and death.
The "solution" to the problems starting WW I hadn't worked. The French, Brits and US levied an oppressive "peace" on the Germans, which meant there was no peace. Not that the Nazis and Communists helped by taking it to the streets. The Middle East went from feudal satrapy under the Ottomans to a tinder box under the League of Nations mandates. Thus, progressives throughout the world united to form the UN out of the ashes of WW II.
Then things went badly wrong. Postage stamp nations were created at a furious pace after the implosion of the British, French, Belgian Portuguese and Dutch empires. The people in their former colonies were left in utter misery. With a few notable exceptions such as, eventually, India, "one man, one vote, one time" ensured that dictators sprung up, destroying whatever spunk and initiative these new nations possessed. Pakistan, much of Africa, and initially India degenerated into war and famine.
The formation of the UN did nothing to solve any of these problems. A corrupt crew of bureaucrats sprang up whose only mission was self-preservation. The dictators of these new countries picked "ambassadors" who got the cushy privilege of living it up in New York City, and running wild. Imagine the heaven of being supported by your own (corrupt) government, being able to amass thousands in unpaid parking tickets, and having as a "job" attending a debating society overlooking the beautiful East River of New York City. Simply irresistible. If is were only the waste involved, the UN would be inexcusable and in need of abolition.
Foreign aid is now largely administered through multilateral, faceless agencies. Thus, people in lands throughout the world can scream "death to the United States" with impunity. The United States is still largely funding the aid, but the check bears the name "United Nations". Thus, the US spends all of the money, receives all of the vilification, gets none of the influence that should come with aid.
Even worse, the aid does not reach the people. Do you really imagine that those pitiful people waving their arms in UNICEF posters really get a penny? No, the money is in their dictators' Swiss bank accounts or at best wasted in the not-for-profits' bureaucracies.
The Western nations get the distinction of being pilloried for relatively minor transgressions Meanwhile, unabated by the UN, slaughters continue in Rwanda, Sudan, Burundi, et. al. Mosques in Yemen explode. ISIS cuts off peoples' heads. The UN does nothing about Robert Mugabe's destruction of Zimbabwe, once a comfortable, middle class land. The UN grinds out a diet of one-sided resolutions against Israel, while ignoring the constant atrocities in Arab lands. Where is the U.N. when it comes to the continuing persecution of Christians in Pakistan, Libya, Syria and the Islamic State?
The UN is wasting money that ought to benefit the unfortunate. It is worse than the most reactionary conservative dreams that George Wallace or Ross Barnett could dream up.
