Time to Stop Pretending and Walk Away

The idea of an international organization to promote peace and cooperation among governments is a good one. It is also apparently one that is very difficult to put into practice. The League of Nations failed fairly completely in the years between the world wars. The United Nations began in 1946 with the at least nominal support of all the great powers and the good wishes of much of a war weary world. Yet, it too has been a miserable failure. From an organization initially comprised largely of more or less civilized governments (except for the Soviet Union and its satellites), it has degenerated into one quite often dominated by despotisms and thug states. It does effectively nothing to promote peace, and its various agencies are superfluous at their rare best and downright pernicious at their far more frequent worst. The UN as now constituted is a forum for grafters, con men, murderous anti-Semites, America haters, petulantly self righteous beggars, and assorted fascist and socialist planners with stars in their eyes.

None of this is news. Anyone paying honest attention knows it. The puzzling thing is that people who do know it and may even be outraged by it continue to support the UN anyway. I received a mailing today from B’nai B’rith bemoaning the UN’s hypocrisy and vicious anti-Semitism but nonetheless expressing hope that the UN could “refocus” and realize its promise. This goes way beyond wishful thinking and into the area of dangerously delusional thinking. The people from B’nai B’rith are not alone. There are plenty of people who know what is going on, but recoil from the obvious conclusion. The Quixotic hopes of 1946 are not going to be realized. The UN is not going to reform or become useful. It is time to pull the plug.

In fact it is past time. When a project or organization becomes an irreparable failure, blindly keeping it going does not help reach but rather hinders achieving the goals one had for it. The United States needs to stop pretending and quit the United Nations, boot it out of New York City (one hopes to find a more appropriate headquarters location in Beirut, Pyongyang, or Khartoum), sell the building’s site to developers, and cut off all financial and other support to UN agencies. Honor and realism require nothing less. Then after a while perhaps the civilized nations can consider forming a replacement that might actually do some good in the world.