You're dead right about that, Pogo. The British had a long history of mucking around in the Middle East and Asia playing power politics at the expense of the local people, and it IS directly related to the problems we're facing now. Good point.

The U.N., like the League of Nations before it, has failed to be very effective. In fact, it has mainly served as a pawn for the major powers to either manipulate (when they could) or blame (when they couldn't).

"The job", as you put it could only be accomplished if all existing countries had a genuinely equal voice in decision-making and if a 2/3 or 3/4 majority was required to sanction a decision...and THEN only if the people who disagreed with that decision had enough respect for the rest of the World to obey it!

In other words, a basic change in human intentions is needed here. That changes one person at a time, but it really requires inspired leadership at the top to give people hope, and we don't have that at the present time.