Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
I view this as a waiting game so that it looks like we are doing something and working with the international community, until we can gather ourselves and actually get something done in Iran. I do not believe this exercise is meaningful, other than to highlight, once again, the corrupt and impotent nature of the UN.
edited to change Iraq to Iran
|
The meaning of the UN is that we can keep asking it to do stuff so we can show how it is meaningless. Circular, but effective.
For my own part, I don't think the UN is perfect, and on some days I may even go further towards your side of the scorn dial. But even then I understand that the UN has value as the only place in the world where every nation has a seat at the table. I realize that this point walks into one of the main criticisms of the UN, that it is forced to accept outlaw nations as members in good standing and with the rotating committee chair system can have a Syria charing the human rights committee or whatever that gotcha line was. But on the good side this flawed structure allows the UN to provide legitimacy in a way that no nation, not even the most well-meaning and powerful of democracies, can provide on its own or with a few like-minded allies.
I see the UN not as a supergovernment, but as a force multiplier for us, an imperial power with global influence but with limited financial and military means to project that influence. For example, in 1991 Bush 41 made a point of going through the UN and in return for on those efforts we paid only $8 billion of the $61b cost of that war (good anecdotes about the logistics and financing of the 91 war in Clarke's book, by the way). In 2002-03 we did not let the inspections take their course, lost support of the UN, and as a result have paid more than 75% of the costs of a much more costly undertaking, not to mention an even larger majority of the casualties. Even if the UN is a bunch of shitheads, if by working the UN poliical process before the next invasion we can lop off more of the casualties and costs than we can if we don't go there, I think it's hard to say that the UN has no meaning.
