Conservatives love to say that the UN is "toothless", yet we only give the dog teeth when it suits our purposes.
When it comes time to be held accountable for things we do, Conservatives piss and moan, "The UN is toothless and corrupt. Poor America!" Yet those teeth are right back in when we want some other country punished for doing the same things we do. Just like the world court. It's good enough to try assbags like Milosevic, but we'll pull out of recognizing its authority, just in case someone takes us to task for doing evil bullshit.
If the UN was so useless, why was Bush using UN resolutions to falsely justify going to war in Iraq? Why did Colin Powell sit in front of the UN and lie. Why were our Republican leaders begging the UN to believe the lies?
Bush stated we had to go to war with Iraq, because Iraq was ignoring the UN. Then when the UN wasn't in favor of the war, Bush... ignored the UN.
The UN is lacking in credibility because the most powerful member of the UN refused to behave by UN standards.
The UN, contrary to popular belief, is not a vehicle intended to promote US interests. Just thought you idiot right-wingers should know that.
If you look at UN troops deployments you'll see a lot of troops that wear flags other than the stars and stripes.
Sure the UN has problems - everything that involves a large collection of nations with individual - and at times conflicting interests - will have. But it can and does help out greatly with disaster relief and peacekeeping around the globe.
...not to mention the successful democratization/elections/constitution drafting in Cambodia in 1993.
...or the successful arms embargo against South Africa as a means to end apartheid.
...or the Suez canal.
...of the unprecedented Greek/Turkish dialogue on the subject of Cyprus in 2004.
Interesting that an institution that the US started is suddenly being bashed so roundly by Conservatives.
As to being at the table with heinous nations, how many of those nations have we consorted with, especially the Saudis? Why isn't anyone bashing the Israelis, who have ignored their fair share of UN mandates? It is better to have communication open with these nasty little countries so that we at least have a glimmer of what they're doing.
The death of the League of Nations was one of the reasons why World War II happened. For small countries who are basically ignored (read: we can't get anything from them) things like the UN are the only way they *might* get heard. Otherwise, we end up with isolationism. That worked out really well in the late 1930's didn't it?
Like it or not, we live in a world where everyone is interconnected in one way or another. We can't be isolationist anymore. Republicans are trying to tear the UN down. That's like ripping a house down when your pipes get messed up. Rather than doing as the Bush administration did, which is to be an all-talk-no-action coward, maybe we might actually try diplomacy instead of faux intimidation?
Maybe it's because the GOP loves to cater to their Jesus freak fanbase, who think the UN is the "one world government" talked about in the bible? After all, if they believe in talking snakes, they'll believe anything.
And it isn't just the little nations we were hocking loogies on, folks. We were raining all kinds of misery on major European nations that have traditionally been our allies (NATO, right...) because they had the temerity to actually question us.
The Right is the worst kind of coward... they pretend to be tough with the UN, AND they kowtow to the UN.
That's not leadership, that's childishness.
Don't lie about it unless you've a better plan.
Of course if you want to ignore the facts of the situation in favor of a good dose of right wing propaganda circle jerking - be our guest.
When it comes time to be held accountable for things we do, Conservatives piss and moan, "The UN is toothless and corrupt. Poor America!" Yet those teeth are right back in when we want some other country punished for doing the same things we do. Just like the world court. It's good enough to try assbags like Milosevic, but we'll pull out of recognizing its authority, just in case someone takes us to task for doing evil bullshit.
If the UN was so useless, why was Bush using UN resolutions to falsely justify going to war in Iraq? Why did Colin Powell sit in front of the UN and lie. Why were our Republican leaders begging the UN to believe the lies?
Bush stated we had to go to war with Iraq, because Iraq was ignoring the UN. Then when the UN wasn't in favor of the war, Bush... ignored the UN.
The UN is lacking in credibility because the most powerful member of the UN refused to behave by UN standards.
The UN, contrary to popular belief, is not a vehicle intended to promote US interests. Just thought you idiot right-wingers should know that.
If you look at UN troops deployments you'll see a lot of troops that wear flags other than the stars and stripes.
Sure the UN has problems - everything that involves a large collection of nations with individual - and at times conflicting interests - will have. But it can and does help out greatly with disaster relief and peacekeeping around the globe.
...not to mention the successful democratization/elections/constitution drafting in Cambodia in 1993.
...or the successful arms embargo against South Africa as a means to end apartheid.
...or the Suez canal.
...of the unprecedented Greek/Turkish dialogue on the subject of Cyprus in 2004.
Interesting that an institution that the US started is suddenly being bashed so roundly by Conservatives.
As to being at the table with heinous nations, how many of those nations have we consorted with, especially the Saudis? Why isn't anyone bashing the Israelis, who have ignored their fair share of UN mandates? It is better to have communication open with these nasty little countries so that we at least have a glimmer of what they're doing.
The death of the League of Nations was one of the reasons why World War II happened. For small countries who are basically ignored (read: we can't get anything from them) things like the UN are the only way they *might* get heard. Otherwise, we end up with isolationism. That worked out really well in the late 1930's didn't it?
Like it or not, we live in a world where everyone is interconnected in one way or another. We can't be isolationist anymore. Republicans are trying to tear the UN down. That's like ripping a house down when your pipes get messed up. Rather than doing as the Bush administration did, which is to be an all-talk-no-action coward, maybe we might actually try diplomacy instead of faux intimidation?
Maybe it's because the GOP loves to cater to their Jesus freak fanbase, who think the UN is the "one world government" talked about in the bible? After all, if they believe in talking snakes, they'll believe anything.
And it isn't just the little nations we were hocking loogies on, folks. We were raining all kinds of misery on major European nations that have traditionally been our allies (NATO, right...) because they had the temerity to actually question us.
The Right is the worst kind of coward... they pretend to be tough with the UN, AND they kowtow to the UN.
That's not leadership, that's childishness.
Don't lie about it unless you've a better plan.
Of course if you want to ignore the facts of the situation in favor of a good dose of right wing propaganda circle jerking - be our guest.