Hi Gang:

The Charter of the United Nations reads:

Chapter 1
Purposes and Principles
Article 1

The purposes of the United Nations are:

1.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,and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,and to bring about by peaceful means,and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law,adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.
.............................................

If all that is true , how come the mighty UN hasn't lifted a finger to try to bring about peace in Iraq???

There is both a war and a civil war going on there right now...no????

After three and a half years ,you would think that it would have come to someone in the UN's attention.

Maybe we should stop fixing their New York parking tickets and that might get them off their dead asses and do something about Iraq.

Just a thought.

hippolips

The UN was doing something about Iraq. It had weapons inspectors in there, finding and destroying what illegal weapons wer left over. It also had no-fly zones, and pretty much had Hussein contained. It wasn't perfect, and there was corruption in the oil-for-food program, but it was working well enough. The UN wa bringing about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.

The UN refused to sanction Bush's invasion of Iraq - and he went ahead without the UN's backing, bringing about the deaths of hundreds of thousands, chaos and destruction.

If the consensus at the UN had been listened to there most likely wouldn't be a war and a civil war going on in Iraq. It's a bit of a cheek to expect the UN to pull Bush's irons out of the fire now.

quote:

Maybe we should stop fixing their New York parking tickets and that might get them off their dead asses and do something about Iraq.

Talk about a change in strategy! I wonder why no one else has thought of that??

quote:

the mighty UN

Why "the mighty UN"? The UN is only as mighty as its member nations want it to be, and even then, any resolution can be vetoed by the Security Council, or otherwise sabotaged.

For example:

'A United Nations committee has voted overwhelmingly to begin work on drawing up an international arms trade treaty.

The measure would close loopholes in existing laws which mean guns still end up in conflict zones despite arms embargoes and export controls.

It could also stop the supply of weapons to countries whose development is being hampered by arms spending.

Only the US - a major arms manufacturer - voted against the treaty, saying it wanted to rely on existing agreements.

A total of 139 states voted for the motion. There were 24 abstentions.

Major weapons manufacturers such as Britain, France and Germany voted to begin work on the treaty, as did major emerging arms exporters Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Russia and China, also major arms manufacturers, were among the countries to abstain.' UN initiates arms trade agreement

Most of us, I guess, would agree that the international arms trade should be limited, at least. Yet the UN can do nothing without the support of member nations.

Is it just a US habit to talk about the UN as if it were an alien institution wished onto the world by little green men, and run by Dr Evil? The UN is us!