Threatening the UN or.....

Yes, we are bullies what are you going to do about it?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A U.S. congressional committee has drafted a bill that threatens to withhold tens of millions of dollars in dues from the United Nations unless the world body conducts wide-ranging reforms, possibly setting the stage for a funding battle like the one that plunged the U.N. into financial crisis a decade ago.

We, being the United States of America are the ones who can of course tell you what you are doing wrong and demand you obey or we will cut off funding or basically do whatever we want. If you are a country like Israel, we will protect you, using the veto to stop UN sanctions from being placed on you since 1972. Ironically the first person to cast a veto to prevent Israel from being sanctioned was none other than George Bush, Sr. when he was U.S. ambassador to the UN

The rationale for casting the first veto to protect Israel was explained by Bush at the time as a new policy to combat terrorists. The draft resolution had condemned Israel’s heavy air attacks against Lebanon and Syria, starting Sept. 6, the day after 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in an failed Palestinian attempt to grab them as hostages to trade for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Between 200 and 500 Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli raids.

Bush complained that the resolution had failed to condemn terrorist attacks against Israel, adding: “We are implementing a new policy that is much broader than that of the question of Israel and the Jews. What is involved is the problem of terrorism, a matter that goes right to the heart of our civilized life.”

The all-time record holder of the veto was the administration of Ronald Reagan. The Reagan team used the veto 18 times to protect Israel. A record six of these vetoes were cast in 1982 alone. Nine of the Reagan vetoes resulted directly from Security Council attempts to condemn Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and Israel's refusal to surrender the territory in southern Lebanon. The other nine vetoes shielded Israel from council criticism for acts as the Feb. 4, 1986, skyjacking of a Libyan plane.

Israeli warplanes forced the executive jet to land in Israel, allegedly in an effort to capture Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal. He was not aboard and, after interrogation, the passengers were allowed to leave. The U.S. delegate explained that this act of piracy was excusable "because we believe that the ability to take such action in carefully defined and limited circumstances is an aspect of the inherent right of self-defense recognized in the U.N. Charter."

To be perfectly blunt one of the primary reasons Bin Laden was able to recruit and succeed has been our behavior when it comes to Israel and Palestine. Most of the Middle East sees this as hypocrisisy and it is. We helped sow the seeds for terrorism to continue, of course we are not totally to blame for their choice in a response to this, but to pretend we have not helped create this situation would be totally dishonest. We have demonstrated whether it was our intent or not that we don't care about arabs dying, unless it of course meets our agenda like Iraq. It has been blantantly obvious that the US and Israel can do whatever they want with or without UN support. From the very first Veto in 1972 when 11 Israelis died we basically told the Arab world that the hundreds of Arabs that died were not worth 11 Israelis. That it was acceptable for Israel to kill civilians in retailiation, and this has continued replayed over and over again.

So here we have a Congressional committee that has drafted legislation that will "tell" the UN what it has to do or we will cut tens of millions of dollars of funding. Knowing we are right now in Iraq and went without UN approval. Knowing we have used the veto more in the past 30 years than all other UN Security Council members together. This ego trip that the United States seems to have that we are the "one" causes us the very problems we have in the world. We are seen as a bully, the brat on the street corner that says "Do it my way or I'll take my marbles home".

I'd like to believe the UN would say fine "take your money and shove it" but they won't, which is part of the reason why the UN isn't effective. They are afraid of us. They've let us take control with the exception of the rare display of not supporting the war in Iraq (not that it mattered since we just did it anyway) the UN typically folds. Which in reality makes the whole UN system a farce. It was intended as a modern day League of Nations were everyone had a voice, so perhaps the demise of the UN would not be so bad. If the UN cannot stand up to us and we on the other hand do not respect the UN process, why should we expect anyone else to?

Resources for this article came from the various works of Donald Neff and UN documents.....