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United Nations Report

The real battle ahead

by Henry Lamb

May 5, 2003

Now that the smoke is clearing from the skies over Baghdad, the real work begins: helping the people form a government, and preventing the United Nations from ruining it. Both tasks are extremely difficult; success, or failure, will have profound influence on several generations.

Most Iraqis, but not all, simply want to get on with their lives, without fear of the government throwing them into prison, or worse, at the whim of their leaders. A significant number of religious leaders want to control the government precisely so they can throw into prison, or worse, those who fail to conform to Islamic law. There are also ethnic, economic, and political divisions among the newly freed people. Bringing these divergent forces together into a government is a Herculean task. It is a task for the United States, not for the United Nations.

The U.N. suffered a major blow when the United States, along with 65 other nations, undertook the task of removing Saddam Hussein, over the objections of the U.N., France, Russia, Germany, and the international professional protesters. The U.N. is now, perhaps, in a life-or-death struggle, trying to regain its legitimacy by inserting itself into the reconstruction of Iraq. It cannot do so without the acquiescence of the United States.

In Congress, and across the nation, there are voices urging the President to involve the U.N., to "mend fences," and to make gestures to smooth the ruffled tail-feathers of our former allies. The President should resist this pressure, and leave the U.N. twiddling its thumbs.

The world witnessed the utter ineffectiveness of the U.N. when it watched the Security Council argue for 12-years about Saddam Hussein. Now, we are discovering why the French and Russians didn’t want military action that would upset their financial arrangements with the dictator. We are discovering why Kofi Annan didn’t want to disturb the enormously profitable "oil for food" program that he ran with virtually no external accountability.

Were there no other reason to abandon the U.N., this episode with Iraq would be ample justification. But there’s more. Much, much more.

There are nearly 130 agencies and organizations operating within the U.N. system. Each oversees programs that require vast sums of money and massive bureaucracies. These programs are all strategic components of the plan to achieve global governance, as described in Our Global Neighborhood, the report of the Commission on Global Governance. These programs operate outside the spotlight of international media. There is little doubt that they all stink, with a foul smell, so rank that it would make Kofi’s "oil for food" irregularities smell like roses.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change is but one of these 130 U.N. agencies. The back scratching between U.N. officials and environmental organizations is so far beyond disgusting that it could approach criminal--if anyone were looking. We tracked environmental organizations for two years, who were listed as "executing agency," or "collaborating organization," on grants totaling $792,705,000, in 1998, and more than $800 million in 1999. The grants came from the U.N.’s Global Environment Facility. If you have a strong stomach, examine some of the projects funded, in part, by your money.

The U.N. bureaucracy is so far removed from accountability that few Americans have any idea at all what the massive institution is doing, let alone how effectively or efficiently it is operating. Congress has little knowledge of, or interest in, these far-flung wealth centers. Now is the ideal time to wean the U.N. from our treasury.

If the U.N. is allowed to stick its nose into Iraq, the old buddy system will flourish. To be a buddy of the U.N., do what the U.N. wants done, and the U.N. will throw a little money your way. Sound familiar? Who gets the goodies in socialist societies, or in societies run by dictators? Of course, it’s the people who do what the government says to do.

The U.N. may be a more benevolent dictator than was Saddam; less violent, perhaps, but no less corrupt. The U.S. has an opportunity to help the Iraqi people discover representative self-governance. With the help of Iraqi nationals, and other enlightened and courageous individuals, the Iraqi people can say "no" to the religious fundamentalists, and to the U.N.

With help from the U.S., Iraq can become a beacon of freedom for the entire region. The United Nations cannot withstand this powerful light.