The UN

There’s good news and there’s bad news.

First the good news:
The corrupt, nepotistic Kofi Annan (see “Oil for Food Program”) has stepped down after a decade as Secretary-General and the new S-G is Ban Ki-moon from the STILL America friendly nation of South Korea.

The bad news:
The United Nations continues to exist – note that I DID NOT use the term “function” – and suck up huge quantities of U.S. taxpayer funds (the U.S. pays 25% of the annual UN budget in an effort to bleed America dry while transfusing 3rd world tyrants and their Swiss bank accounts) and is STILL sited in New York City.

In reporting the elevation of Mr. Ki-moon to the top job, the AP reported that he “…laid out an ambitious agenda as the next U.N. secretary-general, promising to become personally engaged in efforts to bring peace to the Mideast and Darfur and to clean up the world body. “

That, of course, begs the question “How did the UN get so DIRTY and who allowed it to become so?” If you read that first sentence, you know the answer.

And, while we wish the new S-G all the luck in the world (he’ll certainly need it!), the UN has a largely miserable – non-existent? – record of resolving these all-too-frequent religious, tribal, sectarian and other conflicts.

Consider the events in Mogadishu, Somalia in early October, 1993 when a team of U.S. Army Rangers took on a job the UN forces there either wouldn’t or couldn’t accomplish: Capture the local warlord and his henchmen in order to quell the violence. Admittedly, the job was made far more difficult by the refusal of then SecDef Les Aspin and the Clinton Administration to deploy the armor and C-130 gun ships the commanders on the ground felt were clearly needed. The administration feared that that all-important “world opinion” would consider it “overkill” by those mean American bullies. It was “overkill” all right: 18 Rangers died in the failed operation and many were seriously wounded. (Check out the film “Blackhawk Down” for a graphic and rather accurate portrayal of what ensued.) Our people had to literally BEG the UN officer – safely ensconced in the fortified soccer stadium – to send UN APCs out to rescue our folks. He did so – but reluctantly. As you read this column, Somalia is on the verge of again exploding. Guess the UN is still there in the stadium.

So much for the effectiveness of the UN in Somalia.

When rebel violence REerupted in Sierra Leone in 1995, the government there – or what then passed for a government – called in a private South African group consisting of 100 men calling themselves Executive Outcomes. Some would call them “mercenaries.” You can decide for yourself based on the results they achieved.

Though equipped with firearms, the rebels used machetes to hack to death men, women and children by the hundreds of thousands.

From 1995 to 1997, these 100 men of Executive Outcomes organized and lead the friendly locals and held off rebel forces, stopping the inter-tribal killing of women and children for a cost of around $20 million a year. In 1997 the UN, INSISTING on assuming Executive Outcome’s role with 17,000 blue-helmeted troops and a budget of $100 million a year, ALLOWED THE KILLING TO RESUME AND FAILED IN EFFORTS TO HALT IT.

Let’s recap:

Between 1995 and 1997, a private “mercenary” army, Executive Outcomes, stemmed the violence with 100 men and a budget of $20 million a year.

In 1997, the United Nations took over and with 17,000 blue helmets and a budget of $100 million a year, the VIOLENCE RESUMED!

And the part you’re REALLY going to love is that, under the dues formula at the good old UN, U.S. taxpayers (that’s us, folks) coughed up $25 million a year for the UN to go in and not STOP the violence but WATCH the violence – probably from a fortified soccer stadium.

But wait. THERE’S MORE!

In a July, 2006 piece in “The Australian,” it was reported that many UN “peacekeepers” take R&R very seriously when they found that UN peacekeepers have abandoned at least 20 babies fathered with poverty-stricken Timorese women.

A UN investigation (the fox investigating the deaths of all those chickens?) has also uncovered a culture of cover-up, in which babies born to peacekeepers and sex crimes committed by its personnel over seven years have been kept secret because of a "fear of shame and embarrassment". A report on the investigation recommends that a policy of zero tolerance of sexual misconduct be enforced on UN staff.

The report reveals for the first time that babies born to UN peacekeepers have been abandoned without financial support.

Their mothers have been stigmatized and in some cases ostracized by their communities.
Efforts by the UN to organize assistance for the women have failed.

If anyone reading this can update us on the outcome of this “investigation” and report any substantive punishment meted out to these runaway fathers, please send it along. Since my favorite facial skin color is NOT blue, I’ll not be holding my breath.

Is the UN effective and do we get our money’s worth?

You tell me.

While we wish Mr. Ki-moon much luck, we suspect he will soon envy the captain of the Titanic.

Or -- more appropriately -- our late friend Larry McDonald and the passengers and crew of Korean Air Lines 007 the night of September 1,1983.