Ringer--

It breaks my heart to have to tell you that this is the only UN we have. There is room for improvement--what a revelation. Nobody has claimed improvements could not be made---as a sage once said, please try to keep up.

No organization is perfect--no person either--perhaps not even your good self.

But the burden is on you to establish that the UN, even without improvements, does more harm than good. If you don't think that UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, and the UN's function as an investigative body (e.g. Lebanon) and as an honest broker (do I have to explain what that is?) (e.g. Iraq)---mean the UN does more good than harm---you need to do a lot more reading--and watching something other than Fox News for a change.

If you think the UN can solve a country's internal problems or solve a problem requiring military intervention, you are distressingly naive.

The oil for food scandal, in which, by the way, US firms are also implicated, is a handy club to beat the UN. The General Assembly has made pointless anti-Israel declarations. But to extrapolate from this that the UN is useless--or does more harm than good--is throwing the baby out with the bathwater--a reaction of the frustrated and impotent, as I pointed out.