Keeping the United Nations out of the picture

Iran is way off the reservation, and the UN are doing nothing about it. They've threated to break the seals - backing off only after US pressure - they're refining uranium, and they feel no need to apologize to anyone. Why should they? It's just the UN and the EU after all.

The question is implied: what are you gonna do about it?

Meanwhile, it turns out that Iran has been supplying the Sunni "insurgency" in Iraq with bombs that can do serious harm to troop carriers. This on top of their support for al Sadr and similar lowlifes. And their last election was a blatant fraud, in which no one was allowed to run that the people might have wanted to vote for. The pro-democracy movement in Iran is waiting for us to do something. With a little support from us, the students will rise up and overthrow the mullahs. Without it, they probably won't risk it. (The Kurdish part of Iran is already rising up. But the Kurds have had more success in the past than Shia Arabs.)

But first, the United Nations. We lost precious months in 2003 waiting for the UN to shove its hypocrisy and follow up on its own resolutions. That never happened, and it never would have. Part of the reason for that was always obvious: the UN is a hopeless institution. The more detailed reason has emerged over the past few years: the oil for food scandal. France, Russia, Germany and China were all bought and paid for by Saddam, and Kofi's little Turtle Bay debating society helped negotiate the deals.

So now Bush has sent John Bolton to the UN as our ambassador, over some worthless Senators' filibuster, as a recess appointment. Detractors object that Bolton is obnoxious and has no respect for the UN, and is therefore a bad choice for this post. I grant the premise, but why what logic does the conclusion follow? That is precisely the sort of man we want to send there right now. The point is to send a message: get your s**t together, you snivelling corrupt bastards, and damn quick. Who better than Bolton to send that message? John Bolton is a living human rebuke. Here's hoping they take him to heart.

So now Kofi Annan is talking all nice and promising reforms, while praying that Volcker's investigations never reach him. But we've been here before. Remember Boutros-Boutros Ghali? Rwanda? Any reform of the UN, short of taking it all apart, coming up with a new charter, and sticking the old name on it to confuse the limousine left, will fall short of what's needed.

The UN is *consitutionally* incapable of doing any real good in the world. It's corrupt and feckless by design, not accident. It's built on the premise that if you get a bunch of powerful people together who have no shared values in common at all, and have them talk at each other, their various disagreements can be sorted out. It simply doesn't work that way. All the problems that can be solved by talking or threatening get solved long before they reach the UN level. The problems that reach the UN are the ones that can't be solved by talking or (empty) threats. There's no way the UN can accomplish anything with what it's given to deal with. Where would it even begin? By the time this less than august body even gets a chance to speak, there's no longer anything left to say.

So what do they do instead? They emit meaningless resolutions, skim graft off of charities, run interference for mass murderers, and make sleazy backroom deals to keep the mud peoples down. Maybe new reforms will put a stop to all this, but I doubt it. And even if they do, what good purpose will the UN serve?

Slowly, but surely, the world is facing up to this. John Bolton and the Volcker investigation will surely help the process along. But Bolton's job now is to make his job obsolete. We need to clear the UN out of the way so we can put up something better in its place. Almost anything would be better. But I'm specifically thinking of a treaty organization of democracies, acting to protect and extend freedom and human rights throughout the world, by whatever means avail. No thugocracies need apply. If your people don't get a vote, neither do you.

(And no, the European Union is not going to do the job. Never did - Balkans - never will. In fact, it's got its own problems these days.)

For now, the UN crowd is on the ropes. Distracted. Humiliated. Scrambling for a way to justify their existence. They never could do any good, but now they're temporarily incapable of doing harm. That's good enough, for the moment.

It clears the way for us to deal with Iran.


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