Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Let's Play "What Did They Leave Out?"

The UN notes that war and violence have gone down in the world in the last decade and have issued a report lauding their role:

The first Human Security Report documents a dramatic, but largely unknown, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuse over the past decade. Published by Oxford University Press, the Report argues that the single most compelling explanation for these changes is found in the unprecedented upsurge of international activism, spearheaded by the UN, which took place in the wake of the Cold War.

"In the wake of the Cold War." Yep, nothing more to be said about that. The Cold War just kind of vaguely ended. Nobody won and nobody lost. I mean, if the Soviet Union had won the Cold War and not the American-led (dragged?) West, the following years would have been just the same. International activism surging and UN spearheading. Ah, thank goodness for the UN.

Isn't the UN leaving out a trifling detail? Like the fact that America defeated the Soviet Union in 1989 and so Soviet meddling in the world took a 95% reduction? Let me just add for absolute clarity that had the Soviets won the Cold War, the "wake of the Cold War" would have been an actual wake for the massive amounts of the dead we would mourn from poverty, mass murder, and gulags running 24/7. Just maybe--I mean, I don't want to be hasty here when the UN insists it should get the credit--but just maybe the fact that America became the dominant power after defeating the Soviet Union had something to do with the fact that genocide, war, and civil unrest have all declined since the Cold War was won.

So let's remember the real source of "ending" the Cold War.

As I often think when the UN tries to take credit for tsunami relief, or Iraqi elections, or world peace, the UN can kiss my butt. Just when is Bolton going to lop off those top ten floors anyway?