Finding a way to achieve a global relationship that is conducive to world peace has to be the most important task of this and every generation. In January of 1942 we helped found a global organization with a genuine desire to find world peace. The United Nations was supposed to be the tool through which all nations in the world would gather to settle their differences diplomatically.
Today the United Nations has lost its purpose. Dictatorial governments and human rights abusers are sitting across from governments and leaders that value human life and want nothing more than to improve the quality of that life for as many people as possible. The United States, with our own set of values, pays more money into the United Nations than any other member nation and has no greater degree of control over what that money is used for than North Korea. Many of the U.N.'s most successful missions rely on U.S. money, infrastructure, and soldiers.
Beyond money, by being a part of this organization we are entering an environment in which we give North Korea, Syria, and Iran the same legitimacy as the United States in the General Assembly. Through our connections with the United Nations, it is much easier for other countries to put America in a bind. We can no longer act in our own interest without being demonized for it. I am proud that we took the initiative to free the Iraqi people of one of the most ruthless dictators in recent history.
The sad thing is, all we did is enforce the seventeen U.N. resolutions that had been passed throughout the last decade. These resolutions required Saddam Hussein to meet a number of reasonable demands that he agreed to at the end of the Persian Gulf War. As soon as the initial agreement was made, Saddam Hussein was finding ways to get around them, to breach them, and to altogether ignore the wishes of the United Nations. Every time Saddam Hussein violated a U.N. resolution they drafted a new resolution that would be less stringent than the previous one. Imagine how the United States must appear to the dictators who care little for human life, many of them with people in their countries that will give their lives to destroy those of others. The United Nations to these people is nothing more than a tool through which ineffective, time-consuming negotiations divert attention and allow these dictators to advance their mission to wreak havoc on the free, peace desiring nations across from them.
If a true balance is to be found that will result in world peace, we must be able to stand up for something. If we don't believe in our country, our way of life, and our values as ones that are worth fighting for and are worth spreading to others; if we don't learn to believe in the things we stand for, balance will never be found. We cannot put up with ruthlessness, terrorism, or any of the tactics that resemble them. If we truly want to set an example for the world, to make clear what our purpose is and to show faith in ourselves, we will withdraw from the U.N. It is no longer a viable organization, and our staying with it despite this fact only succeeds in destroying our legitimacy with each passing day.
Write to Brett at bamock@bsu.edu
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