The U.N.’s second in command, Mark Malloch Brown, is unhappy about the lack of respect U.S. citizens afford the United Nations. He is particularly unhappy that U.S. officials allow “too much unchecked U.N. bashing and stereotyping” to reach the heartland through Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Ambassador John Bolton called on Kofi Annan to repudiate Brown’s remarks; Annan refused and stood by his deputy director.
These comments come from the United Nations at a time when the U.N. is asking the United States to facilitate a $1.2 billion renovation project, and only a few weeks before the global body runs out of money if the U.S. does not approve the U.N. budget. Budget approval has been withheld pending agreement on reforms that, so far, the U.N. has been unwilling to adopt.
When will the United States realize that the U.N. is beyond repair, reform, renovation, renewal or any reason to exist?
To be sure, it is far better to have a neutral forum for nations in dispute to discuss their differences, rather than to settle those disputes on a battlefield. But the United Nations is not that forum. The U.N. neither prevents war, nor keeps the peace.
The United Nations has, instead, worked long and hard at becoming a separate governing entity with influence, and eventually authority, over all its member nations. In the process, it has become a corrupt, bloated bureaucracy with virtually no accountability to anyone. Its successes are few; its failures are legion. The oil-for-food scandal and the never-ending sex scandals of the U.N. peacekeepers in Africa make the headlines. U.N. supporters overlook these failures and criticize John Bolton for holding up the U.N. budget.
What rarely makes the headlines are the incessant efforts to expand global rule through endless treaties, agreements, commissions and agencies. Each of these U.N. offspring draws every member nation a little more securely into the U.N. web. The World Trade Organization, for example, drains a little sovereignty from each member nation that agrees to submit to decisions made by the international body.
The Law of the Sea Treaty, pushed by U.N. supporters in the U.S. State Department, and others would drain more than a little sovereignty and require the U.S. to submit to decisions made by the International Seabed Authority.
The Kyoto Protocol is trying to create its own compliance mechanism.
Rep. Ron Paul has introduced legislation to prevent the implementation of global tax policy, long desired by the United Nations. So far, only six congressmen have signed on in co-sponsorship.
Many people across the country who have watched their property rights evaporate through so-called “smart growth” plans are completely unaware that these schemes originated in the United Nations and became “internationally accepted policy” when Agenda 21 was adopted by the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. Even when Bill Clinton’s President’s Council on Sustainable Development began to implement Agenda 21 through federal agencies, few people made the connection to the U.N. This is just another way that sovereignty is being eroded while the U.N. weaves another web around this nation.
The National Animal Identification System now being developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture also originated in the international community. Most environmental laws and regulations are the result of treaty compliance or international obligations. The influence of the U.N. on domestic policy goes far beyond the headlines. This insidious force is sucking the sovereignty from our nation with the support of Congress and most Americans – who fail to see the danger.
A more visible danger is the reality that when push comes to shove in matters or war and peace, the U.N. can do nothing but talk. Action must be taken by affected members. This truth became evident when the U.N. Security Council refused to act on Iraq, even after Iraq ignored a dozen or more U.N. resolutions. Now in Iran, the U.N. Security Council can do nothing but talk about Iran’s flagrant deceptions and non-compliance with prior agreements.
People who have supported the U.N. in the past should realize that the institution is beyond repair, that a new mechanism must be constructed that is truly a forum for debate, not an excuse to build a global government.
A good way to begin would be to demand that Congress enact another Ron Paul bill: the American Sovereignty Restoration Act (H.R. 1146). This is the best answer the U.S. can make to Mark Malloch Brown’s complaints. This act would remove a heavy U.N. burden, and open the door to a brighter and more hopeful future.
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