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November 29, 2004
Liberals and the UN
The thing I find hardest to understand about liberals and the UN recently is how reluctant many liberals have been to get to the bottom of all the corruption and scandal that has plagued the institution in the past. It was Reagan that forced the UN to reform UNICEF. Without Reagan cutting off funding, UNICEF would probably still be as corrupt as the Oil for Food program was and innocent children would have suffered the most. The recent problems that have plagued the UN have hurt most the people liberals supposedly care the most about with the results of the corruption and unethical behavior being the genocide of minority groups, child prostitution, mass rape, starving and sick children, the funding of repressive ditatorships, etc..
I guess the choice comes down to two possible outcomes for liberals. The first is that they care more about the ideal the UN is supposed to be and are unwilling to face the reality of what it has become. If this continues to occur, then the UN will not be fixed and the innocent and weak will continue to suffer, but no one gets their dreams about what the UN is hurt. Their other choice is to face the music, admit the UN is really incredibly messed up, and try to fix it. This will be very messy, will make a lot of people upset, and may not even work because the rot in the UN is very deep.
I think liberals have their place in society and one of their jobs is to defend the weak and "speak truth to power". Here is their chance to do it.
What steps to take next to fix the UN problem? Glenn Reynolds and many others suggest appointing someone with great integrity and a commitment to freedom and justice (such as Vaclav Havel) chairman of the UN. I think Havel will be a great chairman, but it is going to take a massive effort to fix the problems in the UN and no one man can do it alone.
Posted by Pete at November 29, 2004 03:44 PM
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