UN beyond repair; Let NAM take over

It is refreshing to hear President Ahmadinejad of Iran pointing out the weaknesses of the United Nations. Amongst the UN’s pontificators, poseurs and hypocritical thugs, he stands out as a voice of reason, straightforwardness and honesty.

For decades ordinary people have placed their hopes for peace and justice in the United Nations. And for just as many decades, they have been cruelly disappointed.

What was once intended to be the mechanism through which disputes could be mediated, wars avoided and poverty eliminated is now too often the opposite. Today disputes are increased, wars are waged and poverty maintained (the percentage of those who live on under USD 3 per day is about 55% of the world’s population). In particular, every day, twenty five thousand people die from the effects of dirty water.

At the centre of the UN’s failure to satisfy the hopes of the world is the Security Council. This structure is hopelessly outdated and, instead of being the means through which security is maintained, it furthers the opposite ? insecurity, bullying and war.

The Security Council has become the agency of arrogant powers whose military capacity far exceeds their political judgment and whose political judgment massively exceeds their moral authority, which is non-existent. The US has never allowed the Council, or any international body, to function in the interests of peace and never will because its military and industrial complex wants wars, not peace. The truth is that the UN is the means through which wars are facilitated, not discouraged. The US, with its cronies, the UK and France, is a warmonger and when it is not waging wars it is engaged in overthrowing governments. The US’s record in instituting vicious right-wing fascist dictatorships regimes in South America, for example, is a disgrace.

In the Security Council, the US has rejected every vote against Zionist Israel, and the Council has become a body through which the US pressures its enemies and rewards its friends and cronies. Even the humanitarian agencies are used and abused.

What of the UN’s General Assembly? Can’t it do anything?
No, it has no power at all and is a mere talking shop.

The result is that the UN serves the interests of neo-con, Zionist, finance capitalism which cares naught for other countries’ sovereignty and wants to dominate every other country militarily, politically, financially and economically. Thus the General Assembly is powerless to stop the drone assassination attacks in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somali upon which no war has been declared. Indeed, the American government sniggers when twenty or thirty people are blown apart (or just lose a leg or two) and, if anybody protests, it smirks and talks about “collateral damage”….

The US, ignoring the referendum and election held in Syria and linking up with the Salafis and Wahabis of Saudi Arabia (who are the most brutal people on earth and have no philosophy other than throat slitting and vicious totalitarianism) is trying to smash any Middle East state which could conceivably offer opposition to Israel. The Zionist entity is bent on establishing itself in the lands from the east end of the Mediterranean right across to the Tigris and Euphrates.

Furthermore, the US is becoming as aggressive at home as it is abroad. Over seven hundred and fifty million dum-dum (expanding) bullets have been purchased by the Homeland Security Agency as the USA government prepares to shoot its own people.

What of Russia and China? Can they do anything to change the UN (and remembering that the US is trying to surround them with military bases)?

No, Russia and China have not woken up, do not want to change the status quo, and like having their vetoes in the Security Council.

The result is that Palestine remains occupied (with the Palestinians losing more and more land every day); Iran is sanctioned (even when all sixteen American intelligence agencies say Iran is not building an atomic bomb); and the US Congress, confident of its power, is now threatening the UN for not extending the sanctions even further.

So let’s get one thing clear. The UN is not capable of being reformed. Adding more permanent members to the Security Council will change nothing. Existing members with a veto power in the Security Council are not going to give away their power.

Genuine reform of the UN, therefore, is impossible and, whilst President Ahmadinejad is to be congratulated on his courage and honesty when speaking at the UN, it will not be enough to propose that the UN should reform itself, because it won’t. It will not be enough to propose that all governments be allowed to participate equally in the UN, because they won’t be allowed to. It will not be enough to propose that all occupiers, such as Israel in Palestine, be held accountable because they won’t be. And it will not be enough to propose a ban on the use of force to settle international crises. Besides, America is a power in long term decline and any solutions initiated by the US, or in which it plays a part, are certain to be part of an old, collapsing paradigm and so must be rejected.

So is there an answer?

Yes, and it lies under President Ahmadinejad’s nose (although this writer has a feeling that the President knows this very well and is just biding his time for the right moment).
The answer is NAM, the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Iran is in the Chair for the next three years.

Since the UN cannot be reformed, the way forward is to create a new organization expressing the needs of the world and finding solutions. NAM exists for this; Iran is creating a secretariat, and the basic mechanism should be the encouragement of regional groupings within NAM. The regional groupings should consult among themselves to take decisions on international matters, such as putting sanctions on Zionist Israel. The regional groupings would then consult and take decisions (such as sanctioning supporters of Zionist Israel) with other regional groupings.

Furthermore, one of the present great needs is for new economic thinking free from American and European influence and a new banking system.

In short, since the UN cannot be reformed and is the agent of worldwide repression, the only way forward is to build something new outside the UN.

Let NAM be the basis for something new. Let it go forward bravely not worrying if its Presidents are denied visas to enter New York or its members are sanctioned. Instead the new NAM should resolve to sanction those who sanction others and build its own co-operations, treaties and relationships. It should put forward big political ideas and big new economic ideas including the use of interest-free money (created by national banks and repayable) for the spreading of the real economy to every individual in society.

That is the way forward, to a new world and a rejection of the old one. In that world, Iran, working via NAM, is the country to give the lead.