I think it’s dawned on everyone that he can’t stand up in front of the United Nations on Sept. 12 and say, `It’s our way or the highway,’ ” said one senior administration official. “But that doesn’t mean he’s willing to pursue inspections. It’s up in the air.”
Seeking the approval of Congress I can understand. Frankly, if done right, it’s a formality. Stand up on September 11th, Mr. President, and say “On this first anniversary of an unprecedented attack against our nation, I ask you to help me prevent the next one.” That’s all that needs to be done. Congress won’t dare to vote against it, the potential political consequences would be too great.
But the U.N.? What possible repercussions are there if we piss off the U.N.? Are they going to tie up traffic in Manhattan, or stop vaccinating Africans against polio? The U.N. won’t do anything substantial to help us, and can’t do anything substantial to hinder us. Sure, it can provide a fig leaf of international approval, but the fig leaf isn’t for our benefit. It is solely for the benefit of the U.N., in the hopes that in future we will look to put on the fig leaf before we do anything, that in the absence of the fig leaf we will do nothing. And this administration is starting to fall for that argument.
So listen up, all you black helicopter, secret markings on the roadsigns people. Your Republican president is about to be trained to ask U.N. permission before he does anything. Slippery slope, people, slippery slope.
Screw the U.N. and the magnificent horse that we paid for that it rode in on.
I’m not actually opposed to international organizations. The problem is that the U.N. isn’t exclusive enough. There’s all sorts of riff-raff in there, and they’re jamming up the works. Nothing gets done. The U.N. today primarily exists as a money sink. What we need, and what I think War Now has suggested before , though I cannot find it, is a new international organization, composed at its birth primarily of democratic countries in the Anglosphere and Western Europe. A country doesn’t get to join unless it can demonstrate that it is a stable democracy with open markets and the rule of law. I’ll be willing to pay attention to the United Democracies, for that body will be built on common values. The United Nations was a utopian idea, and like so many utopian ideas, has proven to be more of a dystopia in actual practice.
