Cuba: Whatever Happened to Reforming the UN?

Whatever Happened to Reforming the UN?
Written by Frank Salvato
Saturday, April 22, 2006

For a moment, fleeting as it was, there was hope that the ultimatum
crafted by US Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL) calling on the United
Nations to reform would work. Hyde’s legislation tied reform to the
monetary contributions (dues) by the United States. But with politicos
on Capitol Hill watering down the legislation and the United Nations
proposing a new human rights council that may very well boast Cuba as a
member, it seems that a subject that has drifted from sight has also
drifted out of mind.

Today, more than ever, the world needs an organization where world
leaders can meet to hash out differences and confront rogue states
hell-bent on domination and global conquest. Conflicts in the Middle
East, Asia and Africa, as well as social upheaval in Europe and South
America cry out for an organization that can provide solutions. Genocide
in some of these regions demands action.

Sadly, the United Nations has weathered the storm of criticism brought
on by the Oil-for-Food scandal, a high level scandal in which the UN was
complicit in illegal money laundering. Oil-for Food not only found the
UN placing greed over humanitarianism but by its very actions created an
“eleventh hour” with regard to nuclear and bio-chemical proliferation.
In allowing Iraq, Russia and Syria to play “Where’s Waldo” with Saddam
Hussein’s nuclear and bio-chemical weapons program material the UN
proved to the world that even when the future of the planet is at stake
it cannot be trusted

The UN has evolved into an ineffective, unaccountable body bloated with
bureaucratic egos that offer unenforceable and hollow resolutions. Its
councils and commissions are tainted due to the inclusion of states that
sponsor and harbor terror, thus its inability to define terrorism, let
alone a plan to eliminate it. Half-hearted, neutered peacekeeping
initiatives either leave “peacekeepers” watching acts of genocide while
sitting with their collective fingers in their noses or see the very
people charged with protecting the threatened raping and abusing them.

In a move that illustrates just how hollow and comedic the actions of
the United Nations have become, Iran’s ambassador, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi,
was elected to serve as the vice chair of the disarmament commission.
The commission is charged with promoting the disarmament of nuclear
weapons and reviewing treaties that deal with nuclear energy.
Danesh-Yazdi takes his seat as the world scrambles to find a
non-military way to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Further spotlighting the UN’s madness of including aggressive regimes in
their policy making arms is its consideration of Cuba and Venezuela for
the new Human Rights Council. Cuba is regularly cited by humanitarian
organizations, including Human Rights Watch, as a nation which violates
human rights on a daily basis. Venezuela’s strong-man Hugo Chavez stands
arm in arm with Fidel Castro and aggressively postures toward his
neighbors and the West.

If the United Nations’ decisions on who is included to formulate policy
is bordering on the absurd, its track record for providing cogent
solutions is dismal. You don’t have to go too far back into its history
to find evidence to prove so.

The ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan can only be described
as genocide. While the UN Security Council is rendered ineffective
because of the fanatical ideology of some of its key member nations
(these are the same nations that can’t be bothered to come up with a
definition for “terrorism”) the government of Sudan publicly denies that
it is aiding the aggressive Janjaweed militia group, while it secretly
supplies them with arms. Experts contend that Janjaweed has been
infiltrated by al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Estimates
have more than 180,000 people killed and more than 1.8 million people
displaced due to this conflict.

In just one-hundred days in 1994 and estimated 937,000 people –
amounting to approximately 9,370 people a day – were slaughtered in
Rwanda as UN “peacekeepers” stood by with their hands tied, forbidden
from engaging the aggressors. Despite urgent pleas, both before and
during the slaughter, by Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire the
United Nations did nothing.

The list goes on: The Arab-Israeli conflict? Failure. The
Indian-Pakistani conflict? Failure. The Lebanese crisis? Failure. The
Kosovo conflict? An ongoing failure. Congo, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone,
Haiti, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire; failure, failure, failure.

Now, when the UN is served an ultimatum to reform or lose funding from
its host nation and largest financial and physical benefactor it chooses
to fail again by allowing despot regimes onto commissions designed to
combat their very actions and allowing the deadlocked, bureaucratic
status quo to continue despite the existence of matters that threaten
the very well-being of our planet.

There is nothing in the global rule book that says the United States has
to be a part of the United Nations. The idea that the US might draw
together an organization of nations that actual does something in the
face of crisis and evil, that reacts to squash acts of genocide and
moves to physically block the proliferation of nuclear technology –
perhaps starting with the NATO countries – is not at all far-fetched. At
this point, considering an alternative to the non-action and rhetoric of
the UN is a legitimate idea. Besides, we could use the office space in
Manhattan.

Cuba

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Whatever Happened to Reforming the UN?

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