Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
The United Nations (UN) was formed in 1945 right after the end of World War II. Like the League of Nations formed after World War I, it was hoped that the UN would foster global peace among nations. It is time to assess whether the UN has achieved that objective and whether our participation in it is beneficial to our country. There have been many wars since the creation of the UN such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, Israeli Six Day War, Iraq War and currently Russia/Ukraine and the Israel/Hamas conflict.
One might argue that the presence of the UN has prevented a nuclear World War III, but that would be a stretch to say the least. The threat of mutual destruction has been the controlling factor in preventing nuclear war thus far. Whether that will continue with the spread of nuclear weapons to China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and inevitably Iran remains to be seen. The existence of the UN does not seem to have prevented nuclear proliferation.
Is membership in the UN beneficial for the United States? The UN started with 51 countries and now has 189. The majority of these countries are not democratic and their values and principles are not consistent with our constitution. Worse still, the structure of the UN General Assembly gives every country one vote with the weight of the smallest country (Tuvala, population 12,000) carrying the same impact of the United States. Currently, the United States pays up to 25% of the UN annual budget of about $4 billion which amounts to $1 billion a year. Money that could be spent on securing our borders, for example.
Some other areas of concern are the leftist leaning decisions of the UN. The World Health Organization arm of the UN mishandled the COVID 19 pandemic and failed to hold China in anyway responsible for the creation and spreading of the manmade virus. The UN’s unwavering support of the climate change extremist’s agenda, such as the Paris Accords, and the war against fossil fuels threatens our country and way of life, while allowing China and India to continue to build coal burning power plants. Another example, is the UN’s failure to condemn the barbaric atrocities of Hamas for almost two months and their history of condemning Israel at the slightest excuse. They have never condemned Iran, the biggest sponsor of terror in the world. The latest example is UNESCO’s (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) global wide guidelines that would severely restrict free speech in the media and social platforms. The guidelines require the blocking of any speech that they label as “misinformation.” Sound familiar? They also boldly stated that the U.S. Constitution needs to be changed to reflect these new guidelines.
It is time to have a serious debate as to whether we want to turn over the governance of our country to some global authority. Some of the leftists in this country believe we should. I do not and hope neither do you. With China increasingly controlling the UN by placing members of their communist party in key positions, we must make an honest evaluation of whether the UN has outlived its usefulness.