House votes to withold UN dues!!!
I literally am shocked in disbelief at what our House Representatives have just done! They passed a bill* that would "withhold up to half of the country's dues from the United Nations if the world body does not cut its bureaucracy, redirect its budget and tighten its accountability", as it requires "the creation of whistle-blower protections, an independent oversight board with broad investigative authority and an ethics office to thwart possible conflicts of interest". Blackmail? This is not they way I thought "politics" worked for some reason. I thought all involved parties come together to discuss issues, and resolve conflicts... not issue ultimatums that a democratic body (in which we play a large part) must suddenly transform itself to our demands?!!
Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations, recently established an independent review board to recommend reform decisions for the U.N. and is acting on them now. For our representatives to do something like this, is just a spit in the face to a world body of nations... this definately cannot win us any favor in global nations view!
Kofi Annan warned that the House bill could "jeopardize" his own effort to streamline the U.N. bureaucracy at a summit on U.N. reform for world leaders in September, and it said he "believes that U.S. engagement and leadership in this process is very important but does not feel that withholding dues is a productive route to achieving reform."
This was largely a Republican effort, here is what they had to say in their own words:
Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) said "bloated bureaucracy" and "anti-Israel bias" at the United Nations "goes against the grain of common sense in America." Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), issued a statement... saying that the United Nations needs "greater oversight, accountability and transparency" to "prevent another scandal like Oil-for-Food."
Let me just remind everyone, from this common misunderstanding... The U.N. is NOT a nation. It is a global body of nations, and the U.S. is the most influential leader in it! To somehow point blame of "bloated bureaucracy", "anti-Israel bias", and particularly the "Oil-for-Food program scandal" is misdirected... since we, the United States, as a leading body in the U.N. are just as much to blame ourselves. There have been several reports to suggest that the U.S. was involved, or at least largely knew of the Oil-for-Food problems and did nothing to stop it. To point the blame collectively at every other nation represented in the U.N., instead of taking responsibility ourselves and working through these issues of reform through the proper diplomatic means... there is no hope for the U.S. to forge any leadership role in directing this epitome of democratic governance.
* article on washingtonpost.com, see bugmenot.com to access full story
Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations, recently established an independent review board to recommend reform decisions for the U.N. and is acting on them now. For our representatives to do something like this, is just a spit in the face to a world body of nations... this definately cannot win us any favor in global nations view!
Kofi Annan warned that the House bill could "jeopardize" his own effort to streamline the U.N. bureaucracy at a summit on U.N. reform for world leaders in September, and it said he "believes that U.S. engagement and leadership in this process is very important but does not feel that withholding dues is a productive route to achieving reform."
This was largely a Republican effort, here is what they had to say in their own words:
Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) said "bloated bureaucracy" and "anti-Israel bias" at the United Nations "goes against the grain of common sense in America." Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), issued a statement... saying that the United Nations needs "greater oversight, accountability and transparency" to "prevent another scandal like Oil-for-Food."
Let me just remind everyone, from this common misunderstanding... The U.N. is NOT a nation. It is a global body of nations, and the U.S. is the most influential leader in it! To somehow point blame of "bloated bureaucracy", "anti-Israel bias", and particularly the "Oil-for-Food program scandal" is misdirected... since we, the United States, as a leading body in the U.N. are just as much to blame ourselves. There have been several reports to suggest that the U.S. was involved, or at least largely knew of the Oil-for-Food problems and did nothing to stop it. To point the blame collectively at every other nation represented in the U.N., instead of taking responsibility ourselves and working through these issues of reform through the proper diplomatic means... there is no hope for the U.S. to forge any leadership role in directing this epitome of democratic governance.
* article on washingtonpost.com, see bugmenot.com to access full story
1 Comments:
Consider the League of Nations was designed to prevent war. It failed when WWII broke out, and was disbanned. After WWII the United Nations was set up as the new global democracy. Since then it has failed to prevent wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and a host of genocidal murders including Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ghana and others.
The UN is plagued with human rights concerns and has a history of appointing people like Qaddafi to lead the crusade in [against] human rights.
It's unfair and naive to say that these actions the US is taking is not a legitimate form of politics. The UN itself incorporates them in the guise of economic sanctions and trade restrictions against other countries that are not living up to its standard.
The US has forked over enough of its resources, time, money, land etc to the UN. In recent years we have seen many of the nations turning their backs on us in our time of need. There is support that the UN owes as much as $15 billion to the US.
If the UN is not covering these costs, upkeeping its own land in our country, protecting human rights (abortion, genocide et al) and unable to prevent war, and be plagued by international scandal of payola and corruption then the UN is owed nothing by our country.
IMO, Many Nations like France were going against UN sanctions and illegally doing business with Iraq. They voted against the war and for more sanctions (after a dozen failed sanctions) rather than remove Saddam. This is because it would cost them billions in their illegal dealings and possibly expose them.
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