Monday, September 19, 2005
Is "Reform" Enough?
Condi pretty well gave the UN "what for" on Friday.
The problems entrenched in the UN are well documented. I am sure the administration is trying to give them one final chance -- but I wonder if the time has not come to pull our support altogther. The thing will rapidly collapse without us. Then we can build something new -- something that actually works.
World leaders at a summit this week adopted a watered-down version of proposed reforms advanced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and by the Bush administration.Few things, particularly bureacratic things, reform well. There are simply too many little fiefdoms and power centers that are unwillin to participate in the reformation for it to really work. That is why history is full of schism and revolution. That is why demolition and reconstrution generally works better.
Rice, in her first speech before the General Assembly, called on the 191 nations to try harder.
"The time to reform the United Nations is now," she said. "And we must seize this opportunity together."
The problems entrenched in the UN are well documented. I am sure the administration is trying to give them one final chance -- but I wonder if the time has not come to pull our support altogther. The thing will rapidly collapse without us. Then we can build something new -- something that actually works.
