Why we continue to tolerate disrespect and downright hostility from the majority of the United Nations’ membership is beyond comprehension. In a display of contempt for the United States, the leaders of Iran, Sudan and Venezuela, speaking before the U.N. General Assembly, have openly insulted our nation, our president and our motives.
The United Nations’ many failures have been graphically illustrated by its unwillingness to intervene in some of the world’s most tragic crises, such as Rwanda and Sudan, which former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called “the site of the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster.”
Approximately 25 percent of the U.N. budget is funded by the United States, at an estimated annual cost of between $3 billion and $5 billion. Although we also give significant foreign aid to many of its members, there is a long list of nations that generally vote against us in the United Nations, which includes most of those who receive financial aid from us.
In addition to financial aid, the United States also provides substantial scientific, technological, health care and educational support to nations that often actively work against our interests. The list of nations that oppose us at the United Nations while reaching for our national wallet includes Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Kuwait, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and, perhaps most troubling, Saudi Arabia, which votes against us 73 percent of the time. When will our leaders face the fact that these countries are not our friends?
Europeans have long accused the United States of being naive in the conduct of foreign policy. In their view, we have never been willing to recognize that self-interest takes precedence over all other considerations in international affairs, that fairness, honesty and even national honor are trumped by political or economic advantage. The conduct of the French during the run-up to the Iraq war is a classic example of the sort of duplicity that results from such thinking. And the collective attitude of U.N. member nations clearly reflects this philosophy.
America has fostered the growth of the United Nations’ giant bureaucracy in our midst. It is accountable to no one, and we have permitted the people who run and staff it to create a system of generous rewards and perks for themselves, all supported by our tax dollars. The United Nations’ compensation and benefits plans provide a lifestyle and a retirement program for the individuals involved that they could never achieve in their own countries. In short, it has become a gravy train for many of the world’s worst tyrants and petty politicians.
We now know that Iraq’s “oil for food” program included graft on a magnitude rarely seen before. Established to benefit the Iraqi people, it was corrupted by Saddam Hussein and his willing accomplices in the United Nations, along with such member nations as France, to the tune of more than $10 billion.
Jill Labbe of the Fort Worth Star Telegram highlighted the United Nations’ questionable and self-serving conduct in Iraq, pointing out, among other things, that:
• “France was sending boats and boat accessories as ‘relief items’ in exchange for access to Iraq’s oil reserves.”
• “Annan personally OK’d $20 million in ‘humanitarian aid’ for one of Saddam’s sons, to construct an Olympic sports complex.” (The son tortured and murdered Iraq’s athletes for failing to measure up to his expectations).
U.N. career diplomats live “high on the hog,” while consistently working against America’s national interest, all on our nickel. Make that our billions.
The fact that we are constantly being told how much the rest of the world hates us is frequently cited as evidence of how wrongheaded our policies are. We are also told we should be more sensitive to the feelings, beliefs and values of others. That’s supposedly the reason the Muslims and so many other people around the world hate us. In other words, it’s our fault they are so hostile toward us. Really?
Who’s more sensitive to the values of others? Those Islamic fundamentalists who are attempting to destroy our society, who behead innocent and helpless victims and murder women and children for no reason other than to terrorize — or Americans, who have been doing everything possible to help free those held in bondage? Is America, with its multicultural society, where all religions and cultures are accepted, really such an insensitive society compared to those of the people who criticize us so vehemently?
I don’t know about you, but I will take America, with all its faults, over those societies elsewhere in the world that continue to enslave, murder and victimize their own and other peoples for personal power and gain. If we are so terrible, why are so many people trying to leave their own countries and get into ours?
Here’s what I would like to see happen:
• No more free lunch for the United Nations and those nations that continue to take from us while denigrating and harming Americans, that accept our treasure without so much as a thank you, all the while complaining that we’re the cause of the world’s ills and, no matter how much we spend to help others, it’s never enough.
• No more ignoring parking tickets in Manhattan, at the cost of millions of dollars to New York City.
• No more unlimited diplomatic immunity, which has been used as cover for espionage.
• No more Koffi Annans and his ilk telling us that the war in Iraq is illegal, while the organization he headed was going through the charade of investigating itself in the very scandal from which it pocketed $2.2 billion in administrative fees and in which his son has been suspected of having personally participated.
• No more seeking U.N. approval in order to take actions we consider necessary for our own security and well-being.
How do we do this? Withdraw from the United Nations, tell it to move out of the United States — and stop giving it money.
Being patient beyond reason and understanding is stupidity. At what point do we decide we’ve had enough? If not now, when?
Leadership is not about being liked or loved? It’s not a popularity contest. It’s about being respected. Difficult decisions always make someone unhappy. That’s why they’re difficult.
Watching the spectacle of the so-called nonaligned nations meeting in Cuba applaud speakers who openly expressed hatred of the United States and everything we stand for while their own citizens suffer political repression, poverty and cruelty is intolerable.
It’s time we stop catering to those whose goal is to hurt America and our people. It’s time to simply get out of this dysfunctional excuse for a world body. It’s time to send the United Nations to “the ash heap of history.”
Harris R. Sherline is a retired CPA and former chairman and CEO of Santa Ynez Valley Hospital who has lived in Santa Barbara County for more than 30 years. He stays active writing opinion columns and his own blog, Opinionfest.com.