Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

The topic on all the shows seems to be the UN’s characterization of the US as stingy. They complain the rich countries should do more.

Well, this rich country is doing far more than any other. By that I mean that the richness that is America–our people–are giving like nobody else.

Our government, on the other hand, isn’t rich. It is in debt up to its eyeballs. It is really quite poor.

The other nations of the world don’t see it this way. Because our GDP is the largest in the world (more than 25% of the total), they view our government as rich. And, indeed, our government spends more than any other in the world. But our government does not own the means of generating all that wealth! Our people do. And those people give–generously.

But we don’t give to the UN, except in those circumstances where we believe some of the money might actually get to where it will do some good.

And that is the issue. The UN is on its last legs, trying hard to appear meaningful. Let’s not let that happen. As soon as they are off the hook, they will quickly return to their corrupt ways. I’m encouraging my representatives to fund the necessary rebuilding of a new UN headquarters–in Baghdad.

Interested in more than a television soundbite? Read this.

Rai holds up a bottle of vodka that the men had been mixing with their colas as they talk. The bottle is scratched and the label torn.

“We found it,” he says, “washed up on our doorstep the day after.”

He smiles knowingly, the irony not lost. While the ocean has taken away all he’s ever had — it has left him a way to toast his own misfortune.

This morning I intended to write a post on returning from the golf course. Michael beat me to it.

My thoughts turned this way when Herman mentioned something that had appeared in the local paper this week. Immediately after Dubya promised $35 million in relief, our local editor decided that wasn’t enough. The paper identified numerous CEOs in this country who make more than that annually. Okay. And what does one have to do with the other? After all, my tax dollars aren’t paying those CEO salaries, but Dubya is promising government money. The two are not even linked.

Secondarily, which Article of the Constitution permits our federal government to expend money in this way? And this isn’t an issue of compassion–the American people have donated, and will continue to donate, many millions of dollars through private charities. It is an issue of fiscal responsibility and adherence to the Constitution.

Our government, unlike so many others, was established with a document which gave it certain powers, and no more. Yet it is continually usurped. And MSM is all over the “stinginess” of our government.

The list of US-bashers is long, but heading that list is every functionary in the UN, not the least of whom is the Secretary-General.

Michael hits all the right notes, so I won’t belabor the issue. I will echo his urging of phone calls to Congress, and many emails. The reason? The UN building has not been cared for properly and is falling apart. They want the US to take care of things by providing loans (which will probably never be repaid) for repairs–$1.3 billion worth. I believe it would be far cheaper to build a new home for the UN in Baghdad.

Let’s see. All the nations who hold membership in the UN provide money through dues. That money has been used to fund salaries, and nothing else. No aid comes from the dues. No building maintenance is included in the annual UN budget. The US, Japan, Australia, and Canada, who are working together outside UN oversight to help in South Asia, fund over half of the entire UN budget each year.

Doesn’t appear to me we really need a UN.

I have come to despise the UN and its functionaries. So has my friend The Diplomad.

The UN is a sham.

Check out all he has to say on the topic. He has friends working the relief effort in-country right now. PowerLine is following it, too.

Not too long ago I made my views known on this topic, and Diplomad is taking it a step further with friends providing first-hand reports.

The US Government and private citizens have joined with those from Japan and Australia to actually help, while the UN leaders posture. Together, our three nations pay nearly 50% of the cost of operating the UN. Fifty percent! Any wonder Kofi Annan wasn’t pleased we are doing this without him?

So, he implies all the work is being done by the UN. Who will ever check?

Bloggers.

I am ready for the UN to be completely dissolved. It would be an easy thing to do. Those nations providing the bulk of UN funding (15 of 191 nations provide over 90% of the money, with the US and Japan topping the list) form a new organization populated only by those with representative governments. New membership will be approved only with a 2/3 majority approval after these initial 15 set up shop. All members will resign from the UN. Representatives to the UN will be denied diplomatic visas to the United States.

Name a single successful UN enterprise. Ever. I search the UN’s web site and could find none. Now, name their failures.

Never mind… it would take too much time.

If this isn’t the most arrogant thing I’ve seen in some time from a UN official:

“It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”

The complaint? The US and several other real nations are grouping together to provide aid to tsunami victims without going through the UN first. You know, greasing the proper palms and all that.

Yasser Alaskary of the Iraqi Prospect Organisation is concerned that the US, at Colin Powell’s insistence, may place several Sunnis on the new National Assembly regardless of the voters’ selections. The reason?

• They claim to represent at least 53% of Iraq and so anything less than a majority in parliament will still be regarded as under-representation.
• The ordinary Sunni population will not feel any loyalty towards their ‘representatives’ as they will not have voted them in the very same cloud that hangs over the current interim government.
• Those who will be appointed under an enforced percentage will continue to be considered traitors and collaborators by the Arabic media, the Baath Party, and the Salafis – the three pillars constituting the insurgency.

On the other side…

Making up 65% of the population, Shias feel they were given the short end of the stick in the Governing Council and current government percentages, but despite this, they have been patient in awaiting the elections and allowing democracy to dictate Iraq’s future.

To be sure, we can anticipate pronouncements by such luminaries as Jimmy Carter that the election is somehow invalid. Some group, probably Sunni, will claim they don’t have sufficient representation in the new National Assembly. But projections are for some 84% of eligible Iraqis to vote. When the number is smaller than that due to intimidation in Sunni strongholds, who is to blame?

The US, of course.

And that is what the jihadists want. Ralph Peters has a good article, Osama’s Nightmare, on what this election really means in the Big Picture.

The only thing of which we may be certain is that our deadliest enemies are doing all they can to stop Iraq’s elections. It’s the one goal on which the various terrorist factions and insurgent groups agree. If we needed any further proof that our struggle against terror is about human freedom and the dignity of the common man and woman, our enemies are laying it in front of us.

With democracy breaking out all over, now is not the time to go wobbly and cede to demands by those removed from power. We must show strength of character and make sure the average Iraqi understands we are there to give him voice, not subvert it in favor of whiners around the world.