Week In Review 29 July 2011

This week I took a quick look at the UN Security Council. Being the principal apparatus of the UN for writing, declaring, and instituting security policy I thought it important to know who they are. At first glance it looked not so bad; however, it seems that the foxes, chicken hawks wolves, and bears are watching the hen house.

The structure of the UNSC is that there are five permanent members and 10 temporary members who are selected and voted in by a two-thirds majority. The temporary post is held for two years. The five permanent seats are held by the US, UK, China, Russia, and France. The current temporary seats are held by Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal, South Africa, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon, and Nigeria.

Membership in the UN comes with a regularly assessed fee, or membership dues. There is a long standing issue with the member states not paying their dues in full, if at all. The US has been in arrears with this, particularly in the ramp up and early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is my belief that agreeing to pay the dues was a means of bringing “partner” nations to the table. In 2010 the US paid $7.7 billion dollars to be a member. That was 22% of the overall UN Budget. That needs to be repeated, 22% of the overall budget of the UN. Those dues cover 27% of the Peace Keeping budget. What did this get us? You pay some money and you expect to get something of value in return. This is what we got

·         Failure in Sudan

·         Failure along the Ethiopian/Eritrean border

·         Failure in Angola

·         Failure in Bosnia

·         Failure in Colombia

·         Failure in Israel

·         Failure in Iraq (recall, if you will, the corruption and abuse of the UN Oil For Food Program?)

·         Failure in Somalia

·         Failure to prevent Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, from expunging all white farmers

·         Failure to condemn, fine, or even mention the levels of corruption and abuses which are currently being practiced by its own members

I think that Obi Wan Kenobi had the most apt description as you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Practices such as institutionalized pedophilia, slavery, rape, enforced disappearance, and torture are practiced with impunity and are, in fact, “public secrets”. The United States and United Kingdom have come under fire from these other UNSC states for torture and enforced disappearances in the war against terror; however, to date, very little outcry has been heard about these same abuses that are currently conducted daily within the borders and with the knowledge of these other UN states.

We are paying for these nations to vote against the US in Assembly. We are paying for these nations to have a venue in which to act against our interests. Our TAX dollars, from the budgets past to the budget currently being debated, pay for these other nations to commit crimes against their own people. Crimes which they have openly claimed to take a stand against.