Good stuff.

If you want a great book that shows how completely incompetent, or even corrupt, the UN is, read "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch.  Amazing account of the Hutu-Tutsi conflict and French/UN reaction to it.

I like how it justifies Bush, flip-flopping for him: "It's not about WMD's, it's about the top-to-toe corruption of the entire international system by Saddam Hussein."  We're never told what "It" is supposed to be.  I'm guessing perhaps the war?  Thus, preparing the next flip-flop.  I hate this vague political writing.  

Supposing the "thesis" that the UN is too corrupt for us is correct, how does it then follow that we're supposed to abandon international forum?  The last time we did that, we soon had to pay for it with a World War.  If the UN is too corrupt, why not come up with a different international forum to replace it?  

Remember, the UN itself was the successor of the League of Nations.  If the US abandons the world again, and the consequences are as grave as the first time, it will be twice in  that it has made the same error.    

I'm taking the article's advice.  I've downloaded the report, but, otherwise, the link is worthless.

... next thing you know, we will find out the UN is as bad as Congress legislating tax policy.  

Let me try to put things in simple turms.  The UN is especially good at one thing -- international sanctions.  If your kid screws up, you can beat hell out of them or you can send them to their room.  The first alternative feels satisfying but has lots of bad consequences.  The second alternative often works better than the first.  It may not stop you and your spouse from having an argument about it and somebody may sneak the kid in a sandwich.  

Grow up!  This is a (badly) coordinated effort by people with lots of different agendas and many different ways of looking at the world.  It will never work perfectly.  That does not mean you dump it.

Affectionately,  Harry

for.  Name one good thing the UN has done.  NOT ONE. Destroy the UN.

GOPGeezer, you say the UN is corrupt for reasons like the Oil for Food Program, that was badly abused, yet tell me WHY then is it that the BUSH Administration is the one trying to keep the names of the AMERICAN companies (like Chevron/Mobil & Texaco, and Halliburton subsidiaries) involved with this program a secret ? Could it be that they in fact are JUST as corrupt as the UN that you so want to condemn ?

I wish my old machine could perform like that!  I thought about, then decided I'd wait until it was in printed form.

The UN is worthless; it should be destroyed.  It has no checks and balances.  It's full of flunky thugs from tin pot third world countries. Those flunkies served and hitched their wagons to tyrannts.  They like their masters are corrupt upto their eyeballs.  They are stuffing their Swiss bank accounts.  The UN is hindering the world, not helping it.

Read the history of the UN.  It has been an organization that has failed and squandered/cost hundreds of millions. It's time to end it.  I'd be all for it if it did any good at all, but it does not.

but he's drooling too much on his keyboard to understand.

I have a cable connection with a 3meg/second download, a 1gig processor, and a 300 gigs of SCSI/firewire hard-disk space.    

I put a lot of money into this machine.  That was before I hobbied.

I hate to say, it has got to where I've taken this for granted.  It didn't even occur to me to think it might be difficult.

So much for the easy part.  Now I've got to find time to read the report.    A year?  Two years?  Dividing my time?

/Zin

-- Modified on 10/10/2004 8:16:56 AM

but adobe always runs slow on this.

I built it from scratch, with much money, and with much difficulty.  

That's the difference.  It's getting a little dated now.

/Zin

But beware, I am rearming very soon, so that those puny megabit PsOS that you two have and run cuse soon you're going to get nuked.
    Oh man!! I sound like a North Korean leader.  OK, bedtime, I am fried.

Buy a Mac!