“Fixing” the United Nations

We all know the story of the League of Nations. An early, botched attempt at international diplomacy, history tells us it collapsed due to its own lack of authority and under the chaos created by a body of countries all fighting for individual interest, rather than global good. In history classes, we read that the League of Nations proved totally ineffectual, doomed from the start by its own design.

In recent years, such criticisms have likewise fallen upon the League’s replacement, the United Nations. Citing failures such as Iraq’s 17 ignored resolutions since 1991, the corruption behind the Oil for Food Programme, and more recently, the UN’s inability to respond to crises such as the genocide in Darfur and the nuclear development of North Korea, the UN’s critics see the body as both powerless and bogged down in bureaucratic corruption. The UN either needs massive reform, critics say, or we should take John Bolton’s suggestion and blow ten stories off the UN Secretary Building and rid ourselves of the mess.

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Don’t question Bush’s newest “Plan” for Iraq

Bush’s newest “Iraq” plan is to continue bashing those who question this costly war.  There’s still no metric and no projection of how many more Iraqi and American deaths will occur or what might be accomplished by those deaths.  Only more rhetoric.

As reported by Media Matters,  the Bush Administration’s Iraq strategy is truly bizarre.  It is not a war strategy at all. It is only a PR strategy and, with very few exceptions, it has been gobbled up by the official stenographer for the Bush Administration: the mainstream media.  Here are the official talking points for the “new” Iraq strategy:

  • Republicans are “pro-military” and “support the troops,” while Democrats are “anti-military” and “attack the troops.”
  • Democrats want to “cut and run.”
  • Iraq is the central front in the war on terror.
  • Democrats are “divided” or “weak” on national security.
  • The Republicans will always win debates on national security.
  • The Republicans won the Iraq debate.

    • What’s especially curious about this “war” strategy” is that it could never have served to justify invading Iraq. Not even neocons could have bought this, could they?  It would have been transpararent for all to see back in 2003. 

    For those who are so currently so numbed to evidence-based reasoning, though, it’s interesting to note that this “Iraq” strategy could actually serve to justify any military endeaver anywhere in the world (just substitute any other country for “Iraq” in the third point).   Notice the absence of facts in this strategy–it is actually a highly …

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    The United States needs a king (or queen).

    My father-in-law (now deceased) sometimes commented that the United States needed an aristocracy to give a "face" to our nation.   He suggested that this arrangement would allow the power-holding leaders of the United States to spend more time doing the hard work of government in a less ostentatious and more effective…

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    No fireworks for President Bush today

    The Bush Administration has viciously attacked the press (e.g., the New York Times) for daring to question some of the Administration’s many abuses of power.  The current scandal reported by the NYT concerns the Bush Administration’s decision to secretly monitor bank records.

    Today, however, we celebrate the right of the American people to do far more than criticize their government.  Today, Bush himself undoubtedly waved a flag and admired some fireworks to celebrate, as patriotic, the rights of the people to violently overthrow their government when their government fails them.  In short, the Fourth of July is about recognizing that there is no more fundamental American right than the right of the citizens to violently overthrow their our own government when their government attacks their fundamental rights.  On the Fourth of July, many people even celebrate the Fourth of July by references to God, suggesting that even God approves of revolution to take down unjust governments.

    Given this undeniable meaning of Independence Day (what else could it mean), it is ironic that President Bush would criticize the right of the citizens and their free press to do something actually much less threatening to those holding powerful office: the right to investigate and promulgate information about government abuses. 

    But this is only one of the many abuses of this Administration.  For others, see here and here and here, three of many extensive lists available on the Internet.

    In this context, I found it interesting to review some of the …

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