Let's get some TRUTH on the table, right now. Plain truth. There are some powerful nations in this world---the U.S.of A.being the most glaring example---who, while making their contempt for the United Nations Organisation very obvious, will attempt to use whatever power and influence they have to bend the U.N.to their will. The U.S. in particular has become, through constant emphasis on expansion of their military machine, [and their W.M.D.s]confident that they can ultimately ignore the product of international discussion under the U.N.charter. This is exactly what happened in the approach to the Iraq "problem". There was NO legitimacy to the attack on Iraq. Every U.N. decision, every suggestion of further investigation of the "WMD" situation was ignored and circumvented, amid such a web of lies and contempt for the lives of innocents as has never been seen since 1939.
The LAST people on Earth to be justified in criticising the UN are those in an American administration. As a "leading" member of the organisation, they are outstanding among those who have been unpaying passengers. Instead of being one of the leaders in the fight for justice all around the world, they have consistently "played the field" to their own advantage, and when things haven't gone their way have carped and criicised , and finally did what the hell they liked. And to Britain's shame, Tony "Bushie-tail" Blair went creeping along behind like a lapdog in Iraq. All the Blair flannel and the hardly-coherent gabbling of Bush that is [still!] being produced can disguise the fact that this turn-of the -century fool's adventure has brought the World to the threshold---possibly over it --of a human catastrophe which could dwarf even the horrors of WW2 or Vietnam. And I am no admirer of Kofi Annan either; he's too damn' diplomatic. It's long past time for someone to say "Pay up---or shut up and know that nearly all the world is against you." That, in my opinion, is what the wild American "right" has done for the people of the United States.