¶ … United States in the United Nations When the United Nations was first formed, it was done with noble ideas and motives. Indeed, many of the actions and deeds executed or supported by the United Nations over the years have mostly been positive and productive. However, there has been a consistent and startling degradation. It has gotten to the point where the United Nations and its member states aside from the United States have gotten into the game of talking down to the United States for something of things it has done with the United Nations itself is implicitly or explicitly condoning some depraved actions and/or there are member states that are engaging in some questionable if not unconscionable behavior. While the United Nations has and still serves a good purpose, there are some patterns and behaviors going on from the body itself and/or its member states that need to change immediately.

Analysis

Rather than blindly rage against the United Nations using general statements and hyperbole, the author of this report will offer some specific examples of why the United Nations is corrupted, biased or just simply wrong. Perhaps the best and most obvious example of this bias is the handling of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Of course, both the Palestinians and the Israelis were given land from the British in the 1940's and this was put into force by the actions of the United Nations at roughly that same time. However, the two peoples involved have been fighting ever since and there seems to be little chance of this abating. While Israel is going wrong with its building of settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians and while Israel is indeed occupying and choking the Palestinian territories, the latter is happening for a specific reason. First off, the Palestinian have two main areas, those being the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. One of those areas is led by a group that is most certainly a terrorist group, that being Hamas. The other part of the Palestinian territories is controlled by the more moderate Fatah faction. Hamas, of course, has no interest in Israel continuing to exist as a nation or a people and they make no effort to hide that fact. However, even the more moderate factions of the Palestinian people are unwilling to even admit that Israel has a right to exist. Mahmood Abbas, one of the Fatah members, has admitted in the past that Israel can and should exist but he has since hedged and has refused to repeat those words again. The reason for this is unclear. Maybe he has changed his mind or perhaps he does not want to end up like Mahatma Gandhi, meaning being assassinated by his own people for saying the wrong thing (Bayefsky).

As much as Israel is doing to enflame the Palestinian people, there is probably little they could do to accomplish peace. At this time, Palestinians are randomly going up to Israeli soldiers are trying to stab them. A Palestinian detonated a bomb on a bus within the last week and Vice President Joe Biden's sternest words were for the Israelis ... not the Palestinians that are condoning or allowing terrorism. The big problem is that the Palestinian leadership, both moderate or extreme, seems unwilling or unable to stop the violence perpetrated by their people. Israel has made efforts to make concessions to the Palestinians but it seems to have done no good. When Yasser Arafat was still alive, the Israelis seemingly were willing to give the Palestinians everything they wanted but Arafat just scoffed and said no. The point to the above commentary and summary is that the Israelis have a right to not be bombed, stabbed and shot and they have a right to defend themselves. If the Palestinians were willing to have their areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and not allow for rocket, bombing or small weapon attacks on the Israelis, it would seem that Israel would be willing to do so. However, the United Nations and their condemnation seems to be entirely too much against Israel (Bayefsky).

Another example of the United Nations being morally or logically bankrupt comes from some of the appointments they have made when it comes to committees and so forth. For example, the country of Libya was appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council prior to the fall of Moammar Gadahfi. The level of incredulity that the author of this report has about that having happened...

The United Nations eventually came to its senses and proposed to suspend Libya from the council in 2011. However, the fact that it was even proposed (let alone accepted) that such a despicable country could be added to that council is bad enough (OHCHR).
On a similar note, there are some actions going on in relation to nuclear weapons and the defense thereof that really need to be adjusted. Most countries would agree that countries like North Korea and Iran having nuclear weapons and/or inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM's) would be a bad thing given some of the vile and violent things they have suggested or intimated. However, countries like Russia and a few others are willing to make money no matter how unhinged or psychopathic the buying party is. Russia in particular is still living in the Cold War era given how testy they get when any sort of missile defense is suggested in the area. For example, the United States has in the past suggested several sites in or around Iran or North Korea that could be the home of missile defense batteries. This has ostensibly been to protect against any live and targeted launches of nuclear or other missiles that those two countries launch. However, Russia's response has often been to use the threat of nukes to deter this. The idea that a 21st century country would use the threat of using nuclear weapons as a means of foreign diplomacy just proves that Russia is a country with a 1st world military but a 3rd world government. While countries have a right to defend themselves, there is really a very narrow scope of when and if they should be used. There is a reason it has been the better part of a century since they have been used on a wide scale, that being the bombings of Japan in 1945. Russia should bear in mind that the concept of mutually assured destruction should help moderate their dander and tone and that no country with such threats of violence, even if they are not serious, should not have a permanent or veto-wielding seat on the United Nations Security Council. If known or potential rogue countries (e.g. Iran, Pakistan, North Korea) are going to develop nuclear weapons, any nation around the world should have the ability and right to create and deploy missile systems to defend themselves should a nuclear launch occur. Just as one example, Kim Jong Un seems to be at least somewhat detached from reality and it is certainly not beyond the pale that the despot would launch nukes in a way that would endanger his neighbors. China and Japan, of all countries, should understand that given their proximity to North Korea ... and Russia is just a little further to the north (Virtue).

Another reason the United Nations needs to get its stuff together is that many of their management and disciplinary practices around the world are full of waste, corruption or illegal behavior. It is a near-yearly (if not monthly) occurrence to hear something about United Nation workers engaging in depraved or illegal behavior such as pilfering money or raping women. One of the more recent examples of this was printed in the New York Times in March of 2015. The story includes a rather damning statistic about 2014, that being that there were 80 cases where a United Nations worker was accused of rape, sexual assault or sex trafficking. The areas with the most problems include areas with some of the most vulnerable in the world including Haiti, Congo and Sudan. Even worse is that the accused United Nations personnel in question can only be charged if the United Nations itself waives the diplomatic immunity of the person who is charged (Sengupta). As for general corruption, just one example would be the case of John Ashe. Mr. Ashe was a former President of the United Nations General Assembly and was a diplomat from Antigua and Barbuda. Along with Deputy UN Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, Ashe was charged in a bribery scheme that related to the construction of a multi-billion conference center in Macau (Matthews).

The final example of the United Nations clearly having polluted or ulterior motives would be the work of the International Panel on Climate Change. While some climate scientists would have you believe otherwise, there is plenty of disagreement about what precisely is causing the planet to warm. The problem with all of this as it relates to the United Nations is that they seem…