If You Think the U.N. Has Merit --- You Just Haven't Been Paying Attention!

Close The U.N.

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Monday, September 24, 2007 4:20 PM PT

The World Stage: Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorism and colludes in the murder of American troops. So why is he given the honor of addressing the United Nations on U.S. soil?

To us, the answer is clear. The U.N. is as corrupt, brutal and morally compromised as Ahmadinejad himself. In its many affronts to civilization and decency, the U.N. has long since outlived its usefulness and reason for being. Time to shut it down.

Sounds harsh, we know. Isn't it better, you ask, to have a place where people can peaceably gather and talk out their problems?

Sad as it is to say, the answer is no. For the U.N. has been hijacked by a rather diverse group of kleptocrats, dictators and fanatics who have successfully used it to their own rather nefarious ends.

An old proposal, put forward by Sen. John McCain a while back, would scrap the U.N. and replace it with a "league of democracies." Great idea. Let that be the starting point for reform talks. Given the U.N.'s abysmal record and its epic depravity, there is no choice. Consider, for example:

• The U.N.'s much-lauded blue-helmeted "peacekeepers" have been repeatedly cited for such crimes as murder, rape, child prostitution and bribery. In the Congo alone, U.N. troops were accused of at least 150 "major human rights violations," the U.N. itself says.

• The U.N. stood by as hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were killed in Rwanda's genocidal civil war in 1994, did nothing as thousands of Muslims were slaughtered at Srebrenica in 1995, and to this day twiddles its thumbs as Janjaweed terrorists commit genocide in the Sudan. It's not a record to be proud of.

• The U.N. has officially reprimanded tiny Israel more than any other nation — including China and the Soviet Union, the two greatest violators of human rights during the 20th century. It has officially equated Zionism with racism, an obvious anti-Semitic policy.

• The U.N. watched as Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein systematically murdered his foes and terrorized Iraqis. When sanctions on Iraq were finally put in place after the first Gulf War, U.N. officials, including then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief aide, lined their pockets in the multibillion-dollar oil-for-food scandal.

• Laughably, the U.N. has given Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe (see opinion, below) and North Korea's Kim Jong Il coveted spots on the boards of human rights and development organizations. All are major human rights violators.

We could go on for literally pages with this stuff. It would be a cosmic joke, if not for the fact that the U.N.'s inactions have resulted in the deaths of millions of people. And we support it with our tax dollars, thinking somehow the billions we spend will spare us the dictators' wrath and criticisms. It doesn't. It only brings contempt.

The U.N. has a long history of letting dictators make their case before the world — in this, Ahmadinejad joins Yasser Arafat, Uganda's Idi Amin, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Cuba's Fidel Castro and a host of other mass murders and tyrants who have addressed the U.N. General Assembly. Nor will Ahmadinejad be the last.

The U.S. supports the U.N. to the tune of $5 billion a year, but gets little — if anything — from its investment. Last year, Freedom House noted that just 89 of the U.N.'s 154 members are "free."

Some at the U.N. talk of moving its headquarters from New York. Fine. Let it go. Once it does, the U.N. will likely be defunded and close. The world — and U.S. taxpayers — will be better off for it. Get U.S. out now!