Is the United Nations still a force for good in the world?
Still?? When was it a force for good in the world?
Okay, I'm not going to bother commenting on that article.
But I would like to answer the question.
I tend to be cynical about the body representing the sainted international community. But I back the UN--better the devil we know--rather than wanting some type of League of Democracies.
I back the UN because it lacks legitimacy because of all its thug rulers as members. So we can use the UN when it backs us and can ignore it when it doesn't because it is not a league of free democracies.
Really, do we seriously want a global body with actual moral authority to constrain our efforts to defend ourselves?
And the UN does have some lower profile agencies that do good things.
Mostly, I think the UN is a place for nations to vent anger and frustrations without having any power to do anything if we don't want to go along with it.
And the thug states that like to vent support the UN despite general ineffectiveness because it is a source of payments that can be diverted to private bank accounts and cushy jobs for their own thug rulers and supporters; and because they know that it is unlikely that the UN will ever do anything to harm them no matter what the thug rulers do.
After all, the only two wars fully sanctioned by the UN left North Korea intact and left Saddam in power in Iraq.
So keep the UN even as we try to fix--or demote--the worst parts of it (and yes, the so-called human rights body is what I have mostly in mind here).
