It's really pretty simple. The United Nations was originally formed with the idea that if one nation has a beef with another nation, instead of sending the bombers or launching the missiles, they could go to the UN and make their complaint. The UN would provide an international forum, the problem would be discussed, and a peaceful solution presented. Should the nations involved in the dispute not like the solution and want to go to war anyway, the various other nations would provide peace-keeping forces and simple not allow the war to happen. A war, especially in the dawning nuclear age, could be detrimental to more nations than just the two involved, and these other nations would have the moral and ethical right—indeed, the duty—to prevent the war. The United States was one of the countries that pledged to supply peace-keeping forces to the United Nations when they were needed. This was ostensibly the case in the Korean "police action."

But if a small, Third World country has a complaint about a Superpower such as the United States or the Soviet Union stepping on their toes or, more likely, going in and exploiting their resources, and they take their complaint to the UN, and if the UN rules against the Superpower, that might interfere with profits, or efforts to gain geopolitical power, or both. Now, of course, as one of the few, if not the only Superpower right now (even though we're sincerely dedicated to democracy and self-determination for all nations), we can't have anybody interfering with our acquisition of power and profit! So we break our pledges, ignore our principles, ignore the UN, and exploit the Third World country anyway. We're certainly not going to fulfill our commitment to supply peace-keeping forces to stop us, now are we?

I like Bobert's analogy of Kofi Annan being like a race car driver. There he is, suited up, helmet on, belted in, and sitting at the steering wheel of what could be an excellent vehicle. But the United States has refused to supply him with wheels, so that fine car just sits there on concrete blocks. No matter how enthusiastically Annan tries to put his foot through the firewall, the car isn't going anywhere.

If the UN is "useless," then whose fault is that?

Don Firth