For those who have made the recent trip from Northern Virginia or from other parts unknown north of here, it's hard not to notice the red, white and blue billboard on the side of the road that boldly declares, "Get the U.S. out of the U.N.!" While two years ago most would have dismissed the billboard's creator as one of those "crazy right-wingers," the events of the past six months have made clear that the United States must seriously examine its membership in the United Nations.
More than 80 years ago, Woodrow Wilson laid out the Covenant of the League of Nations as an association of countries that would swear to keep international peace and security. At the time, many thought it was too good to be true, and it was. After twenty years of inaction, broken promises and member states resigning, the League of Nations wasted away as the war clouds grew on the horizon. Does anyone else see the parallels between then and now?
For six months, President Bush gave diplomacy a chance. He received a unanimous "yes" vote on Resolution 1441, which called for "full and immediate compliance by Iraq without conditions or restrictions." He's spent valuable time pursuing a second resolution, one that is essentially just diplomatic cover for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Yet Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and France have been intent on derailing U.S. efforts along every step of the way. Whether it's prolonging the useless weapons inspections or threatening to use the vaunted U.N. Security Council veto, France never had any intention of enforcing Resolution 1441. If France did, then they would have passed a second resolution in order to give teeth to Resolution 1441. The only intention France ever had was to frustrate America.
The mere fact that France is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council shows some of the lunacy of the United Nations. Some would argue that France plays an important role in world affairs. Yes, it did -- 100 years ago. France would be justified in occupying one of the two non-permanent spots the Council allots to Western Europe. But there are plenty of more deserving candidates to be permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: India, the world's most populous democracy; Brazil, the largest Latin American nation or Japan, the largest East Asian democracy, are all much more deserving than France.
The insanity doesn't stop with France being a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. On January 20, Libya was elected to chair the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Those unaware of Libya and its leader should know of Momar Qadafi's past transgressions in the human rights' arena, Libya's election as chair of a human rights commission would be equivalent to the University appointing Jim Crow to lead diversity efforts. Supporters of Libya's election to the chairmanship argue that detractors, like the United States, are no more guilty of human rights violations than the United States is. However, the fact remains that Libya continues to actively participate in the slave trade of Sudanese people. The United Nations isn't uniting anyone when it allows a nation enslaving human beings to be the chairman of its human rights commission.
Another embarrassing demonstration of U.N. irrelevance can be found in the U.N. Disarmament Conference, a 68-member body that discusses disarmament negotiation. The importance of the conference is real; it lists among its accomplishments the negotiation of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The body rotates its chairmanship on an alphabetical basis, so for the panel's important May session none other than Iraq and Iran, the darlings of disarmament themselves, will be co-chairing the commission. As one U.S. diplomat said, "The irony is overwhelming,"
While it is fun to snicker at the follies of the United Nations, the fact remains that the United States must confront serious issues when evaluating its membership in the United Nations. Somewhere along the way, the United Nations became the be-all and end-all with regards to international security. It is ironic that the nation the United Nations is trying to restrain is also the nation that United Nations has to rely on to enforce its resolutions.
More than 200,000 of our troops are waiting for the go from the president. Every day of U.N. bickering and dillydallying makes a war with Iraq more dangerous for our soldiers. We must not allow the validity of our military actions to be determined by France, Russia, China and the like. Some say it's ignorant, others realize it's true, but U.S. troops in the Middle East are not there to fight at the pleasure of the United Nations.
If you disagree with the notion that the United Nations is a bad idea, are you ready to put the fate and security of your family and friends into the hands of the diplomats of the United Nations? The situation with Iraq is serious enough, but God help us if we are ever forced to rely on the U.N. Security Council to resolve a conflict involving North Korea and its ballistic nuclear missiles. On Sunday after his summit with the leaders of Great Britain and Spain, Bush said that, "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world." Not only was it a moment of truth for the world but also for the legitimacy of the United Nations.
(Joe Schilling is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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