The United Nations turns 70 on Saturday. Its founders, rebuilding the world from the ruins of World War II, had lofty and probably unreasonable expectations for what it could accomplish.
President Harry Truman said it was "designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members." Ralph Bunche, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was involved in the U.N.'s creation declared that it represented "our one great hope for a peaceful and free world."
If only that were so.
Today, the U.N. is too corrupt and badly managed to do much good in many areas of its operations, and in others doing real harm. Its nearly obsessive determination to condemn Israel while letting several of the world's most loathsome and murderous tyrannies pass judgment on human rights would be farcical were it not such a disgrace, a malignant cancer in the conduct of international relations.
The U.N. is, in theory, an institution that can do much good, but it must return to its founding principles and focus on its mission of maintaining international peace and security and promoting actual human rights rather than those trumped up to suit the prejudices and strategic agendas of its most cynical members.
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WASHINGTON EXAMINER
