>> The UN? Where have you bee living the last 50 years?
>> What conflict did the UN ever manage well? When good did the UN ever
>> do?
>> Let's face it, the UN is an incompetant, corrupt, anti-American
>> organization.

IMHO, we have a layering problem.

(1) We elect people to our gummints who barely do what we want, partly
because a single vote is a very inarticulate (blunt) instrument with which
to specify our policy desires, and they can usually do something nice just
before the next election to take our collective mind off previous
disappointments.

(2) They then appoint UN reps who do what the gummint wants. What we might
want of the UN does not figure here, it has very little to do with us. It
is an instrument of and for the use of gummints, not of us.

(3) The UN then, is a body hampered by the agendas of the originating
gummints, and by the delegates, who are manouvering to suit their personal
career ambitions (usually) within the guidelines given to them. It is also
impeded by restraints of funding, and rules which were set by gummints in
the 1950's to suit the politics of that time.

(4) The situation will be slow to change for the better, as very few
gummints will vote for anything which may in the future render them
susceptible to those same laws. i.e any resolution permitting UN
intervention in a tyranny, or making their soldiers subject to war crimes
trials. If you want to improve the UN, talk to your own government. The
UN is not controlled by the UN.

Summarised, the UN is insulated from democracy by a couple of layers of
unaccountability. Is it any wonder that any of the people of good will who
might remain within the UN can do little?

Jim Adamthwaite.