Really? For who? When? Where? How?[/quote]
[quote]International border disputes can lead to escalating rhetoric, tensions and even war between neighbours. U.N. efforts to keep this from happening
[quote]With regard to Colombia, DPA provided staff support and guidance to the work of the Special Adviser of the Secretary General who between 1999-2005 exercised U.N. good offices in the search for a negotiated solution to the country
[quote]During the 1990s, the United Nations organized or observed landmark elections and popular consultations in East Timor, South Africa, Mozambique, El Salvador and Cambodia. More recently, the Organization has provided crucial technical assistance in milestone elections in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Burundi.
Demand for U.N. assistance is growing. The United Nations provided electoral assistance to 95 countries between 1992 and January 2005 alone.
[/quote]
[quote]World
Reported Sex Abuse By U.N. Soldiers Probed on Hill
Listen to this story… by Michele Kelemen
Morning Edition, March 2, 2005
[quote=“jdsmith”][quote]World
Reported Sex Abuse By U.N. Soldiers Probed on Hill
Listen to this story… by Michele Kelemen
Morning Edition, March 2, 2005
[quote]Successful mine clearance activities yield an immediate impact for local populations in terms of access and release of land for use. Most countries in the 2005 Portfolio reported significant areas of land cleared. In the northeast of Albania, over one million square metres of land, out of a target of 2.1 million, was released for activities such as grazing and agriculture. DRC reported that for the first time an entire district was cleared of mines/UXOs. In Ethiopia more than four million square metres of farming and grazing land was returned to productive use in the northern part of the country. In Tajikistan mine clearance activities enabled the re-establishment of access to land for agricultural and cattle grazing purposes as well as to electrical pylons and transformers stations. In Viet Nam, mine clearance in the three central provinces released over 18 million square metres to local populations. Despite serious security constraints, efforts in Iraq continued to reduce the negative impact of mines/ERW in the north and the south of the country with the release of more than six million square metres of land. Chechnya reported the first-ever limited humanitarian demining in and around Grozny, with a focus on clearing agricultural land and allowing access to a former chemical plant. Even in the case of Lebanon, where efforts were hampered by political instability, clearance by national deminers allowed for over 4 square kilometers to be released. In Yemen, after realizing that clearance of high impact areas vital for access to resources, such as water, and agricultural and grazing land could not be returned for use unless adjacent medium or low impact communities were cleared as well, the YEMAC adopted a
[quote]Village Voice reporter Jennifer Gould came across the accounts of the Belgian atrocities while doing an earlier story about sexual harassment of female employees at UN headquarters.
"When I spoke with people at the UN, time after time I was told,
[quote=“porcelainprincess”][quote=“jdsmith”][quote]World
Reported Sex Abuse By U.N. Soldiers Probed on Hill
Listen to this story… by Michele Kelemen
Morning Edition, March 2, 2005
[quote]The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, a vocal non-governmental organisation based in South Africa advocating for the rights of Zimbabwean in exiles is going to take group court cases to the African Union and the United Nations on behalf of Zimbabwean women who have been sexually abused, especially during Operation Murambatsvina.
[/quote]
[quote]The United Nations is setting up a new fund which will aim to pay out money quickly when disasters occur.
The initiative, put forward by the UK, will be launched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on Thursday.
Mr Annan wants money from the fund to go immediately to hungry people in the Horn of Africa.
[/quote]
[quote]Islamabad - The threat of a second wave of winter deaths after the devastating South Asian earthquake five months ago has been averted, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Aid agencies were now preparing to help survivors return to their homes as the emergency phase neared its end and recovery and reconstruction efforts began, said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN deputy humanitarian co-ordinator.
[/quote]
It goes on and on. It’s not perfect, there is abuse and corruption, but where is there not?
I agree with this to a certain extent. The UN is made of the top layers of all governments, and for much of the poorer world, this means the corrupt diplomatic corps; countries, much like and much worse than Taiwan in terms of corruption, bribery and human rights abuses. Many of these countries have mastered nothing but diplomatic emptiness.
That this organization overseas humanitarian aid, tribunals and peacekeeping is mindboggling.
And before you say the USA has all the same or similar attributes, remember that the UN is NOT a country, but an organization made to represent all countries. The sad part now, is that it actually DOES accurately represent many of its member countries.
But let’s keep on topic: Does you think conservatives or neoconservatives hate the UN equally, or one more so than the other?
We should let Halliburton take over?
The statement was that the UN never does anything for anybody. Which is a myth that cons and neocons like to repeat. I don’t know the difference between Conservatives and Neoconservatives.
It’s like saying that we give Palestinians the right to vote and the sad part of it is that they vote.
[quote=“Richardm”][quote=“jdsmith”]
And before you say the USA has all the same or similar attributes, remember that the UN is NOT a country, but an organization made to represent all countries. The sad part now, is that it actually DOES accurately represent many of its member countries.
[/quote]
It’s like saying that we give Palestinians the right to vote and the sad part of it is that they vote.[/quote]
No, it’s like we encourage democracy and than accept at face value whatever democracy comes out of an election as equal to (historically) western democracies and give them a say in how the UN should be run.
Ex: that Sudan even HAS a chair anywhere in the UN decision making process is outrageous.
[quote]
More than seven decades ago, while the U.S. Senate was debating ratification of the League of Nations Covenant, Senator William Borah (R-ID) sought to cool the ardor of the League
There’s an old saying as to how you can tell the difference between a liberal and a conservative:
If a man were drowning 100 feet offshore and a liberal walked by, the liberal would get 300 feet of rope and toss the entire coil out to the drowning man and then walk away.
A conservative, on the other hand, would get 50 feet of rope and make the man swim the other 50 feet to the end first before he’d pull him in.
A neoconservative, I think, would insist that the man prove he actually couldn’t swim before he would do anything at all and even after the man had disappeared beneath the surface he’d deny that the man had drowned.
Oh, and after the man had drowned he’d insist he’d done everything he possibly could to save him.
That’s about it.
[quote=“World is more peaceful now than at any time in 12 years”]Prof. Mack, a former adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, cited a number of reasons for the decline in armed conflicts around the world: the end of the post-colonial era and wars of independence; the end of the Cold War and ideologically driven engagements by superpowers and their proxies; the expansion of democratic government through much of the developing world; and the success of UN peacemaking and conflict resolution.
“There is absolutely no doubt that the UN has been a critical actor, albeit an imperfect one, in bringing the numbers down,” he said.
Despite its failures in places such as Bosnia and Rwanda, the UN has frequently succeeded in preventing armed conflict or in maintaining peace once a conflict has ended.
[/quote]
I remember reading this article when it came out and thinking that it does indeed fly in the face of what many people want us to believe.
Where has it worked? Not in simpy stopping bloodshed, but also worked to actually rebuild an area and get the economy back on track, without massive corruption and human rights abuses.
Face it, cleaning up the world sucks and no one appreciates the effort.
So, BUY WAR BONDS!
[quote=“jdsmith”]Where has it worked? Not in simpy stopping bloodshed, but also worked to actually rebuild an area and get the economy back on track, without massive corruption and human rights abuses.
[/quote]
UN peacekeepers have never done a good job. It is kind of hard to promote economic development, reconstruction, and peace when you are stoned, chasing pussy, and on the graft. And that is coming from the top down through the ranks.
Where has it worked? Not in simpy stopping bloodshed, but also worked to actually rebuild an area and get the economy back on track, without massive corruption and human rights abuses.
Face it, cleaning up the world sucks and no one appreciates the effort.
So, BUY WAR BONDS![/quote]
The UN is not in the business of regime change. Their peacekeeping missions usually have a specific objective and mandate. For example.
[quote]UNITED NATIONS OBSERVER MISSION IN LIBERIA
UNOMIL (September 1993 September 1997)
UNOMIL was established to exercise good offices in support of the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States and the Liberian National Transitional Government to implement peace agreements; investigate alleged ceasefire violations; assist in maintenance of assembly sites and demobilization [/quote]
[quote]UNITED NATIONS OBSERVER GROUP IN CENTRAL AMERICA
ONUCA (November 1989 – January 1992)
ONUCA was established in November 1989 to verify compliance by the Central American Governments with their undertakings to cease aid to irregular forces and insurrectionist movements in the region and not to allow their territory to be used for attacks on other States. In addition, ONUCA played a part in the voluntary demobilization of the Nicaraguan Resistance and monitored a ceasefire and the separation of forces agreed by the Nicaraguan parties as part of the demobilization process
[/quote]
see UN Info
[quote=“Tigerman”]Should we have just chucked the idea of the United States out the window when it didn’t live up to its ideals? Should we do so now? Should we give up on the United States when it doesn’t live up completely to its ideals?
I say Iraq needs time. Freedom and democracy do not come easy. Not to anyone.
Honestly, its easy to believe that some of you really want democracy to fail in Iraq.[/quote] I see where you’re coming from, but some of the articles cited come from men at the centre of the PNAC–they wrote the manifesto that called for a more robust export of American values–and they’re saying that the experiment failed.
Iraq needs more than time. Freedom and democracy do not come easy, and their failure comes down hard on those on the ground.
I don’t want democracy to fail in Iraq. I’m not at all sorry to see the misguided PNAC project fail. Sorry to see how much failure has cost, yes. Sorry that the wrong people have paid the price, yes.
George Will, "Today, […] all three components of the “axis of evil”
Who cares what those guys think? I don’t now and never did before. And how can anyone say that Iraq has failed? It isn’t finished… and I don’t expect it to be finished for a long time to come.
Screaming that Iraq is a failure, is IMO, often nothing more than political partisanship at its worst. Pretending that everything should have fallen together and into place quickly is downright dishonest, or at least wickedly stupid.
The same people who deride Bush for foolishly thinking that the after-war peace effort was going to be a snap are now, IMO, guilty of the same stupidity, or worse. I mean, if you (not literally you) argued that Bush was stupid for thinking the peace was going to be a snap, how can you possibly argue that the situation now is a failure. If you knew that it was going to be difficult beforehand, then why are you calling the situation now a failure. Ferchrissakes, if you knew it was going to be difficult, then even despite the setbacks and violence current, Iraq can be viewed as a great success… so far…
Again… what failure? Failure to be perfect after a mere several years? That is too strict a measurement… no nation can meet that standard. OK, I know that nobody is actually demanding perfection… but, seriously, progress has been made… and that progress has been steady and often monumental. Have there been mistakes along the way? Sure. Dumb mistakes? I suppose. But, how does even that justify cries of failure and demands that we simply chuck it all? I cannot see any logic in such thinking… unless the aim is simple political harm done to Bush.
Failure? Failure to what? Failure to become a completely free and democratic nation just a few years after the toppling of Saddam’s regime? And if this “failure” has been expensive, what was the cost of doing nothing?
How the fuck does a sense of shame and sorrow help anyone? I used to read AS every day… but, nonsense like this has turned me off from his site. And what of those hundreds of thousands who were killed before Saddam was toppled?
I honestly do not see how Iraq is worse now than it was prior to the invasion. And if people argue that there are more terrorists in Iraq now than before, well, on the balance that makes the whole picture a better one… at least they are concentrated in one place and more easily targeted. Its not like they wouldn’t exist if Saddam was still in power with his boot heal firmly pressing down on the necks of the Iraqi citizens.
How in the world can you make such a statement? Iraq under Saddam was an authoritative autocratic malignant dictatorship. After Saddam’s fall we have witnessed several free elections and the beginnings of a political and civil society. I don’t understand how anyone can look at that and see failure. I can see lots of work to do yet… but failure? I don’t think so.
What bloody nose? In the eyes of the critics? Again, how can you proclaim failure before the experiment is completed? That’s just incredibly poor science.
And backfired? How can you say that when the hypothosis being tested is that reform and change in Iraq will facilitate reform and change in the region. Certainly it cannot be denied that things are stirring in the region now.