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Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto
I find this thread disappointingly depressing.
To me the benefits, the vast benefits of the United Nations are manifest. Yet many seem to recoil from it in horror, spouting nonesense about evil organizations, endemic corruption, fleecing rich countries etc etc.
I have done my best to show that the UN is hugely important to not only the United States, but also the global struggle against crime, hunger, terrorism, famine, disase, lack of education, gender equality, non-proliferation, finance, telecommunications etc.
I've heard nothing from the nay-sayers about how they would improve things, or what organizations they would put in its place. I have repeatedly accepted that the UN could be improved, as could all organizations.
The United States itself is not above corruption. Should it be disbanded?
The United States itself has blatant self interest at heart. Should it be disbanded?
People seem to be ignoring the facts and basing their anti-UN rhetoric on the usual neo-con nonesense or unilateralist cum isolationist propaganda that one hears in the far-right media. Has anyone done any real research here?!
As the "Mighty Dollar" seems to speak more to many of these short-sighted people, as opposed to what is morally right or humanistic in nature, let me repeat some previous assertions.
The UN includes organizations and bodies such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. Without these, the US economy would collapse. Ergo, without the UN the US would collapse economically. In other words, without the UN you would probably lose your job.
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Then how did the US (or any other country) survive before the UN? There were agreements before the UN about international trade, and undoubtedly there would be agreements after the UN.
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The UN includes organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union. Without this, there would be absolute chaos in global communication and, if you work in the IT industry you would probably lose your job.
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As opposed to losing your job to outsorcing to another country? Again, any agreement could be better accomplished through agreements between individual countries (or economic partnerships, such as the EU). It might even lead to MORE IT jobs in the US, as the global operations would have to be scaled back, leaving it more economically feasible to have IT jobs stay in the US.
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The UN includes organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization. Without this, international copyright law would not exist or be totally ineffective. If you worked as an author, in the film industry or maybe even in the music industry, you would probably lose your job.
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The successes of this body are too numerous to mention
. Otherwise, my bootleg Hong Kong DVD's might be $2 per instead of $3 per. Even today, copyright law is only enforced to the extent that a particular country desires to enforce it.
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The United Nations is what handles the COMMERCE, COMMUNICATION, INTERACTION and ENGAGEMENT between nation states. To call for its disbandment is meaningless. You might as well call for the disbandment of nations themselves.
There HAS to be a mechanism for nation-states to interact. The United Nations is that body. As I've said before, it's so much more than the General Assembly. The US ignores the GA anyway, and regularly vetoes Security Council resolutions.
The world needs the United States. The United Nations need the United States. And like it or not, the United States needs the United Nations. To say otherwise is to ignore the plain truth and you might as well stick your head in the sand.
Mr Mephisto
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Again, countries survived before the UN. There was interaction before. I think that although the UN might have started as a good idea, it has degraded to a form of welfare for developing nations. It makes sense for alot of countries to support the UN, but the US is not one of them. And with the current state of most European economies, it is probably not beneficial for them either. And as for a supposed duty to the world, that should be left up to the decicion of private entities, not forced upon whole nations.