>From Bushies you often hear, "what's the UN good for, they don't do >anything, they're worthless" etc. etc.
The UN is very good at humanitarian work- food and health and that sort of thing. It is necessary as a common meeting place for the nations of the world. >The answer is they are good for one thing: the UN represents an >ambiguous authority figure without which no individual country has >legitimacy. I refuse to acknowledge the political authority of an international body of which most of the member states are not even democracies and have no legitimacy of their own. >Human beings, by nature, need an authority figure. Unfortunately if >it's YOU that's the authority figure the power will go to your head >and you'll become Stalin or Hitler. Granted they had an unusual >capacity for insanity, but it's the same principle. Anybody every had >a friend that was promoted and soon became drunk with power? That's an awfully cynical view of power, I can see why you think the UN should be in charge. But it's people like Saddam and Kim Jong Il that are the Stalin wanna-be's, not Bush, Clinton, or any other American President. >The UN does the same thing internationally - the US can't go into >Bosnia by itself because the Bosnians would see us as an invasion >force. If the UN does it, however, they're more likely to see it as a >peace mission. NATO did all the heavy lifting in Bosnia. The UN was only good for diplomatic cover, and it wasn't even certain that NATO would get UN approval because Russia was opposed to intervention and could have vetoed approval. I don't think that would have changed things on the ground in the slightest. >This is why Mr. Bush's US led democratic imperialism, "we must spread >liberty to the world" and "freedom is a gift from God", will never >work. "democratic imperialism" is an oxymoron, despite what Pat Buchanan and Stanley Kurtz think. It implies that somehow a war is directed against the citizenry of a country in an attempt to force them into something they don't want- the freedom to choose for themselves how they will be governed. If you look at Iraq and Afghanistan, vast majorities in both countries are in favor of self-determination. The Afghanis have already held elections. The people still shooting at our forces are (for the most part) the ones with something to lose- the Taliban and the Sunnis. Even the Iranian-financed Mehdi Army is giving up the fight and might just become a political party. Democracy will happen in Iraq, despite the doom-and-gloom by people who think an all-out civil war is just around the corner and that somehow Arabs are not capable of democratic government and don't want it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Protect your mail server with built in anti-virus protection. It's not only good for you, it's good for everybody. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=39 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:132103 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
