Probably never imagining what would happen over the next 61 years.
The United Nations Charter is the constitution of the United Nations. It was signed at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco on June 26, 1945 by the 50 original member countries. It entered into force on October 24, 1945, after being ratified by the five founding members—the Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and a majority of the other signatories.
San Francisco, huh? How amazing that one of today’s centers of the One World Socialist movement would be the place where the UN Charter would be signed, bringing into existence a primary proponent of a One World Socialist movement.
As a Charter it is a constituent treaty, and all signatories are bound by its articles. Furthermore, it explicitly says that the Charter trumps all other treaty obligations. It was ratified by the United States on August 8, 1945.
Article 2 of the UN Charter states, “All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.” Some think this makes President Bush an international criminal. Critics believe that requiring any country to obtain international support before undertaking offensive military action is necessary to prevent the escalation of conflicts. Yeah, we’re supposed to have everyone else’s permission first. Right. Oppressive dictators are to be left alone until, and after, you are forced into a purely defensive war.
But Article 1 of the UN Charter states, “To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace.” This seems to support the President’s liberation of Iraq. This is viewed to be an appropriate response to revised concepts of the new asymmetric warfare, in which a militarily inferior power or an insurgent movement claims the right to use normally prohibited tactics, such as attacks on civilian targets and use of unconventional weapons and actions prohibited by the laws of war, while assuming that the superior power will still be bound by them. We do not have to wait until after a dirty nuke or cloud of toxic gas goes off to respond to a threat.
But let’s get back to the Colossal Failure known as the United Nations.
Since the adoption of its charter in 1946, the UN has failed to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” over sixty times. Wars have been fought all over the globe, with at least one, and usually both, of the participants members of the UN. Those wars were neither prevented nor curtailed short of the combatants’ desires to do so. Dozens of nations have undergone violent overthrow of government; hideous pogroms have been carried out by machete or machine gun; millions have died; economies have been wrecked; “fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person” have been brutally and savagely violated hundreds of times in virtually every nation on earth.
From its beginning, the United Nations has shown that it is a timid paper tiger; an ineffective, farcical body which has neither the will nor the power to implement any of its vaunted goals. Truth, justice and fairness are not to be found in the UN building in New York. Instead, it quickly became a hollow sounding board for Communist propaganda, and has now proved itself an inept, irrelevant body of appeasers.
The UN sought to find people from small, powerless, non-aligned nations to become its Secretary General. It has never, not will it ever, appoint any representative from The United States, Britain, or the Soviet Union to be appointed as its Secretary General, even though is has always been these countries that have born the brunt of supporting the body.
One recent example is the current War in Iraq. It came into being because of the ineptitude of the UN. The opening words of Resolution 1441 are virtually embarrassing, for they document the failure of the UN to force Iraq into complying with a plethora of useless resolutions:
“The Security Council, Recalling all its previous relevant resolutions, in particular its resolutions
- 661 (1990) of 6 August 1990,
- 678 (1990) of 29 November 1990,
- 686 (1991) of 2 March 1991,
- 687 (1991) of 3 April 1991,
- 688 (1991) of 5 April 1991,
- 707 (1991) of 15 August 1991,
- 715 (1991) of 11 October 1991,
- 986 (1995) of 14 April 1995, and
- 1284 (1999) of 17 December 1999, and all the relevant statements of its President …”
Saddam knew then that a Resolution from the UN meant absolutely nothing. It didn’t then, it doesn’t today. It has never really meant anything.
Other recent non-actions by the UN:
1990, the Persian Gulf War broke out, along with rebellions and uprisings in Nepal, Albania, Nigeria, Romania, Niger, Somalia, Surinam and Trinidad. The Tutsi insurgency in Rwanda saw the brutal massacre of uncounted tens of thousands who were hacked to death by machetes.
The “August Coup” took place in 1991 in the Soviet Union, quickly followed by the Croatian secession. The Kurds again revolted in Iraq and Turkey in 1991, and the “no-fly zones were established to prevent Saddam Hussein from massacring Kurds in the north and Shia Muslims in the South. The Somalian Civil War broke out from 1991 to 1993, and the Soviets intervened in Latvia in 1991. There was a Thai military coup in 1991, and the Moldavian Civil War broke out.
The Algerian Civil War broke out, as did civil wars in Angola and Bosnia. The Bangkok Massacre occurred in Thailand in 1992. There were coups in Chad in February and May. The Tajikistan Civil War broke out, and there were two coups in Venezuela, in February and November of 1992.
The bloody Burundian Civil War began in 1993, as did the Civil War in Georgia. Somalian Clan Warfare began in 1993 and continues to the present. A revolt began in Chechnya; and massive genocidal killings began in Rwanda by 1994.
1995 saw the Ecuadoran-Peruvian border war; tribal violence in Ghana, and the Hutu infiltration of Burundi. There was a Burundian Military Coup in 1996, the Liberian Civil War in that same year, and a Columbian peasant uprising. The Albanian Rebellion commenced in 1997, resulting in the Kosovo crisis, and NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Civil War broke out in Cambodia, and the military revolted in Sierra Leone.
A bloody Ethiopian-Eritrean Border War occurred in 1998, along with more violence in Northern Ireland. The Tutsi Rebellion occurred in the Congo.
Hideous terrorist bombings in Israel continue. The Mideast seethes with ancient hatreds and strife, and peace in the Mideast seems more elusive than ever.
Can someone point out anything meaningful or noble that the UN has actually accomplished?
Why are we still supporting the UN?
United Nations, UN Charter, Security Council
