DAR
No.

We had a local radio host who like to ignorantly bash the UN. He distributed a 13 point piece of garbage which had all the standard anti-UN lies and smear. I ended up going to war with the guy and had him fired in about a month.

Almost all of the claims (given as questions) on his list were pure lies. The last one, number 13, actually wasn’t a lie. Here is the response I wrote to number #13 on this list, in 2003:

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Isn’t it true that the UN has been implicated in numerous scandals involving sexual abuse in numerous countries?

ANSWER: Yes. They are embarrassing. It is a fact that any large organization with tens of thousands of members and volunteer’s from all over the world is going to have individuals that do bad things and break the law. The US military has had numerous sexual scandals, in numerous countries. So has the Catholic Church. So have the Jehovah’s Witnesses. So has ANY organization of similar size where adults are mixed with children, and have power over them. This is not to suggest this makes it in any sense alright or any less of a tragedy.

Regarding the military:
“Sexual harassment is widespread in the military. In one 1995 Pentagon survey of 90,000 female soldiers in various branches of the military, 60 percent said they had been subject to such abuse, and nearly 10 percent reported being sexually assaulted.” — http://www.themilitant.com/1996/6043/6043_17.html

Ten percent of 90,000 is 9,000 incidences of sexual assault. That’s embarrassing.
Many UN operations are huge, and involve tens of thousands of people from all over the world. As your article cites:
“In 1992 there were 21,000 Nato peacekeepers and aid workers, there were police from 40 countries trying to keep Bosnia’s warring factions apart.”
Terrible abuses are much more prone to happen in poor war torn countries where the enforcement of basic laws has broken down and people are desperate. Regarding Bosnia, as your article points out:

“The British were on the whole extremely good and very professional, setting a great example. But there were policemen from other countries who should not have been in uniform.”

And: “The UN’s refugee agency, which carried out the inquiry, told of “a shameful catalogue of sexual abuse.”

CNN reported, regarding a scandal in Africa:
“In a statement Annan called for a thorough and urgent investigation of the allegations.
He said there was a “policy of zero tolerance for any such acts perpetrated by anyone employed by or affiliated with the United Nations.”

The statement said Annan “intends to act forcefully should any of these allegations be confirmed.”
–http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/02/27/inquiry.children/

That is an appropriate response. Contrast that with how the Catholic church and Jehovah’s Witness organization have responded to their thousands of instances of pedophilia. (Everyone knows about the Catholic scandal of course but to learn about the organization called “silent Lambs” which was put together to help the tens of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses affected by the child abuse epidemic going on in their organization, go to: http://www.silentlambs.org/). These organizations have publicly stated they DO NOT have a zero tolerance policy. As a matter of policy they have told victims not to go to the police. Their abusers have remained members in good standing, and they have been shown to actively cover it up, for decades, and move the offenders around even long after such methods had been exposed.
As evidence, consider that both of these organizations have been sued and found culpable for covering up the abuses. The UN is guilty of hiring people and accepting volunteers who have participated in instances of sexual abuse. They were terminated, and hopefully prosecuted by the law. This is an appropriate response. Do you know of any instances in which the UN has been found culpable, at a high level, in actively covering such things up? If so, then they should be held legally responsible and are open to having to pay damages. Where are the cases showing this? By the year 2000 the Catholic church had paid out an estimated ONE BILLION DOLLARS in damages for it’s role in abetting and coving up it’s child abusing priests going back as far as the 1930’s, in several countries [It's not 2 billion]. And the courts were just getting warmed up. How much has the UN had to pay? This would show that they have been convicted of being culpable in such behavior. Any examples? I don’t know of any, I couldn’t find any, and you don’t site any.

You site a Newsmax.com article that says:
“Imagine the screaming headlines and worldwide outrage if the Catholic Church or any other church allowed sexual abuse of children on such a massive scale.”
–http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/6/151901.shtml

How ironic. This was written in May 2002, and since then an endless cascade of “screaming headlines and worldwide outrage” certainly has followed, and quite rightly, because nothing REMOTELY compares with the size and scope of the Catholic child abuse disaster. Not even close.”
***

Got any other poop to throw Blake? I doubt you’ve got anything I haven’t seen before.

If you would like to see the roast of his 1-12, just let me know and I’ll post it in our forum.

D.

They are worthless and we would be better off without them.

Additional 33 examples here

DAR
Nothing gets done.

It’s almost impossible for a person to comprehend the amount of good the UN has accomplished in the world. And with so little. And much of the credit goes to the US. Too bad there is a group of Americans on the far right that are so ignorant of this.

D.
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Short list of…

UNITED NATIONS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. Deploying more than 35 peace-keeping missions. There are presently 16 active peace-keeping forces in operation.

2. Credited with negotiating 172 peaceful settlements that have ended regional conflicts

3. The UN has enabled people in over 45 countries to participate in free and fair elections

5. UNICEF spends more than $800 million a year, primarily on immunization, health care, nutrition and basic education in 138 countries.

6. UN Human Rights Commission has focused world attention on cases of torture, disappearance, and arbitrary detention and has generated international pressure.

8. Has helped minimize the threat of a nuclear war by inspecting nuclear reactors in 90 [countries].

11. The UN was a major factor in bringing about the downfall of the apartheid system.

12. More than 30 million refugees fleeing war, famine or persecution have received aid from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

13. Aiding Palestinian Refugees with free schooling, essential health care, relief assistance and key social services virtually without interruption. There are 2.9 million refugees in the Middle East served by UNRWA.

14. Alleviating Chronic Hunger and Rural Poverty in Developing Countries, providing credit that has benefited over 230 million people in nearly 100 developing countries.

17. Providing Safe Drinking Water ­ Available to 1.3 billion people in rural areas during the last decade.

18. Eradicating Smallpox ­ through vaccinations and monitoring. Helped wipe out polio from the Western Hemisphere, with global eradication expected soon.

19. Pressing for Universal Immunization of polio, tetanus, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and tuberculosis ­ has a 80% immunization rate, saving the lives of more than 3 million children each year.

20. Reducing child mortality rates, halved since 1960, increasing the average life expectancy from 37 to 67 years.

21. Fighting parasitic diseases, such as saving the lives of 7 million children from going blind from the river blindness and rescued many others from guinea worm and other tropical diseases.

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<a href="http://www.una-usadanecounty.org/about/index.php?category_id=1550"Additional 33 examples here

DAR
The US has treaties and legally binding obligations with countries and the UN. US treaties have the same status as law.

D.