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June 26, 2006

Today in History: June 26, 1945 -- U.N. Charter Signed

by Jason Lauritzen

In San Francisco, delegates from 50 nations signed the United Nations Charter. A successor to the failed League of Nations, the organization was established to save "generations from the scourge of war."

Obviously this has not been the case - the Vietnam War, the Korean War and the Gulf War come to mind - just to name a few. The United Nations is flawed by its very structure. Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises understood this: "It is futile to place confidence in treaties, conferences, and such bureaucratic outfits as ... the United Nations. Plenipotentiaries, office clerks and experts make a poor show in fighting ideologies. The spirit of conquest cannot be smothered by red tape. What is needed is a radical change in ideologies and economic policies."

Another problem with the U.N.'s structure is accountability. For it is as Robert LeFevre wrote in The Nature of Man and His Government: "... the United Nations is a government of the governments, by the governments, and for the governments." How do you make a group of governments accountable? A government is abstract. It is not something you can touch. People do not belong to the United Nations. Only governments belong.

Former Libertarian Party presidential candidate and current United States Representative Ron Paul recognizes this and commented on it in the wake of the U.N. Oil-for-food scandal: "Centralized, faraway government is always less accountable than localized government. The average American has no say whatsoever over what happens at the UN, even though he's forced to pay taxes to support it."

Posted by Stephen Gordon at June 26, 2006 04:23 PM

Reader Comments:

U.S. out of U.N. and U.N. out of U.S.

Really not much else I really need say about the whole subject.

Posted by: Mark B. at June 27, 2006 09:25 PM

I have written many times over that the United Nations is nothing more than a corrupt organization. It has comtempt for freedom, liberty, Democracy and the sovereignty of nations. It is an anti-American institution as well as an anti-Isreali one. It has taken the sides of despotic and totalitarian regimes in many disputes. It has enriched itself at the expense of the United States and other member nations.

It is way past the time that the United States should leave this dispicable body. It should have been done years ago. While the intentions of its founders possibly were noble, it has hurt the effort for world peace and has literally become an international laughing stock. I would support any effort or any legislation that would get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S.

Posted by: Alex Pugliese at June 27, 2006 09:32 PM

One of the best T-shirts says this across the front:

U.N.American

Simple as that. Washington didn't tell us to avoid entangling alliances for nothing. He was referring specifically to France, but he would not have cast that phrase in such abstract language had he not intended us to adhere to it with all foreign policy, not just with Franco-U.S. relations.

Posted by: Marcus Brutus at June 28, 2006 05:17 PM

I second the comments made by Marcus Brutus. Does anyone know where one might obtain such a shirt? If so, could we do so in bulk, with any surplus from such sales going to the Party?

Posted by: Frank Martinez at June 29, 2006 08:40 PM

You can get one at protestwarrior.com, or at least get a bumper sticker with it on there. I'm not sure if they have T-shirts with that logo or not, but they've got some pretty good anti-Leftist things on there (though it's a conservative organization.)

Posted by: Marcus Brutus at June 30, 2006 06:51 PM
 


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