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The
UN was accused of being a “debating society” by US
President Bush. |
Despite
the failure to locate Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, US
President George Bush reverted to UN Security Council resolution
1441 last week to justify the invasion of Iraq.
The
last time the phrase ‘resolution 1441’ was used in the
context of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was in
March 2003, when the UN was ridiculed for its “weaknesses”
and “failure” to hold Iraq accountable.
Failing
to convince an ever skeptical media, President Bush detoured
from citing Iraq as an imminent threat to the US and instead
said the “world was better off” because Saddam “was a
threat – a serious danger.”
The
embarrassment of the Bush administration to unearth WMDs comes
on the heels of a growing rift between the US and other
permanent members of the UN Security Council to shift minor Iraq
responsibilities to the other countries.
Security
Council members France and Russia bitterly criticized a US draft
resolution calling on other countries to provide troops and
finances for the rebuilding (and policing) of Iraq.
Countries
like India have simply refused to provide any help without UN
authorization. Arab countries, like Egypt, have clearly stated
they will offer no support even if a UN resolution is passed.
Commenting
on the US draft, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous
told reporters, “Our first impression is… this revised
project does not incorporate the change in approach that we are
advocating.”
In
rare defiance of US policies in the Security Council, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the US draft does not go far
enough in giving more power to UN agencies.
The
bickering is likely to continue and out-shadow pre-war Security
Council haggling. At stake is UN legitimacy and facing down the
greatest threat to UN agencies since its 1945 creation.
US
media had a field day last winter as it sought to downplay the
importance of the UN as an international organization. US
politicians called on their country to withdraw from the UN;
talk show hosts asked congress to kick the UN out of US
territory.
The
UN was accused of being a “debating society” by US President
Bush, and has been ostracized as being “irrelevant” unless
it specifically carries out one function and one function alone:
authorize an invasion of Iraq and removal of the then regime.
Some editorials went so far as to call the UN a fifth column of
anarchists seeking to destroy America.
All
hogwash.
Many
Americans who do not know of the UN’s great achievements in
the past 58 years, nor of specific US actions to undermine the
Security Council in this period, tout the official US government
hook, line and sinker.
In mainstream North American media, the UN was scolded for
allowing members diplomatically to defy US actions and edicts.
The uninformed viewer will immediately take the position that
the UN acts against the interests of the US and is a threat to
national security.
However,
for many people around the world, most notably the impoverished
third world and developing countries, the UN is a source of hope
and stability. By no means is the UN a perfect system, and this
author will be first in line demanding reform within UN
chambers. However, it is the most global, most influential, and
most binding international organization ever established in
mankind’s modern history.
To
compare it to the League of Nations, (as many in the State
Department have done) which was governed primarily by colonial
powers and completely disregarded lesser African and Asian
countries, is to celebrate historical ignorance.
Since
its establishment in the wake of the horrors of World War II,
the UN has negotiated peaceful resolutions to some 172 conflicts
and deployed more than 42 peacekeeping missions around the
world. Free and fair elections have been sponsored, monitored,
and endorsed in more than 45 countries with resounding success
in bringing democracy to Cambodia, Namibia, El Salvador,
Eritrea, Mozambique, Nicaragua and South Africa.
In
non-political terms, UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s
Fund) has spent more than $800 million a year, primarily on
immunization, health care, nutrition and basic education in 138
countries. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
currently operates in 170 member states and helps design and
implement more than 5000 projects for agriculture, industry,
education, and the environment.
Listing
all of the UN’s achievements would be too cumbersome; however,
the UN currently has projects that promote human rights, combat
illegal people smuggling, maintain arms control, promote nuclear
non-proliferation, provide education on ways to protect the
environment, provide humanitarian aid, eradicate smallpox and
other diseases, promote women’s rights, protect the ozone and
prevent over-fishing, protect valuable earth resources, and on
and on.
This
is an “irrelevant” organization?
Indeed,
the UN has thrived despite US efforts and not because of them.
While the US press reminds France who liberated it in World War
II and warns France not to use the veto, it is the US who has
used the veto more than any other nation in the past 20 years.
(When US Congressmen petitioned to change the name of French
Fries to Freedom Fries, they became the laughing stocks of the
world. Unfortunate, since French Fries, or pommes frites, is
actually a Belgian invention.)
In
fact, according to research conducted by the BBC, the Soviet
Union and Russia have used the vote 120 times, the US 76, the UK
32, France 18, and China 5 times.
Thirty-five
of the US vetoes have explicitly focused on Israeli policies in
the Middle East. According to the BBC, one dramatic veto “in
December 2002, was a draft resolution criticizing the killing by
Israeli forces of several United Nations employees and the
destruction of the World Food Program warehouse in the West
Bank.” The US vetoed this resolution, thereby implying that
the murder of UN personnel and destruction of UN infrastructure
was permitted.
(The
draft resolution concerned itself with the murder of one Ian
Hook, a British citizen working for the United Nations
Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). A UN investigation refuted Israeli
claims that shots were fired from the UNRWA compound which
necessitated fire on the compound. Hook was shot three times by
Israeli gunfire.)
The
latest US veto came against a resolution ordering Israel not to
threaten, nor harm the democratically-elected President of
Palestine, Yasser Arafat.
When
the world was debating the merits of the Iraq war, the public
was continuously asked to refer to 1441 for an existing
authorization for an Iraq war.
Last
week, President Bush went back to 1441 to fight off a growing
number of voices claiming weak or fabricated evidence to justify
the occupation of Iraq.
A
recent poll indicates that more than 50 per cent of Americans
believe the war was not worth it.
President
Bush’s political career is beginning to look fragile. As a
result, it is highly unlikely that the UN will be allocated more
power for running and rebuilding Iraq. Doing so would
effectively be a declaration that the US has failed in Iraq,
that it cannot overcome the challenges, and that it does not
have the political, nor financial capacity to finish what it
started. Hardly a superpower, eh!
The
US will become the butt of political satire.
No,
expect the bickering to continue, until the US applies enough
pressure (or threats) on lesser UN members.
Meanwhile,
Iraqis continue to suffer.
Firas
Al-Atraqchi is a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage.
Holding an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has
eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and
gas markets, and the telecom industry. You can reach him at firascape@hotmail.com.
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