UNITED NATIONS | Declaring “the United States is back,” the Obama administration pledged Wednesday to turn more frequently to the United Nations and work with the world body on the basis of decency and mutual respect, rather than condescension and contempt.
Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment:
This is not really sincere. It is lip-service for four reasons:
1. The Obama-Biden Administration do not have a global strategy, cannot manage Whole of Government operations, and are culturally indisposed to do anything multinationally. It is highly unlikely there is anyone in the White House (or Congress) that can recite the ten high-level threats and twelve core policies from memory, and talk intelligently about how to address all ten by harmonizing multinational spending across all twelve.
2. The U.S. Government is bankrupt and the Obama-Biden Administration has never been serious about redirecting money from the military-industrial complex to Waging Peace.
3. The Department of State is so shallow we have more military musicians than we have diplomats. Within that cast, the New York office has too many spies and not enough heavy-lifter diplomats. In short, this is a nice idea that will go nowhere.
4. The dollar is now worth half what it was when the US ran up its obligations to the UN, and will be worth less going into the end of the year. The UN, to the extent it gets dollars the US is printing but does not have, will get a fraction of what it expects…
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“Engaging across the full U.N. membership is more than good manners. It's also smart diplomacy,” Ms. Rice said.
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Last week, Ms. Rice announced that Washington would pay more than $2 billion owed to the United Nations.
“There is no substitute for the legitimacy the U.N. can impart or its potential to mobilize the widest possible coalitions,” she said. “There is no better alternative to sharing the costs and burdens of U.N. peace operations and humanitarian missions around the world
