It's Time to De-Fund the UN
By Melanie Morgan
FrontPageMagazine.com | December 28, 2004
Just when you think taxpayers have been soaked enough, another ridiculous idea comes from Washington. Now they are talking about sticking the taxpayers with a loan or a loan guarantee for the United Nations to build a new headquarters for a cool $1.3 billion.
Most Americans would rather kick them out! And that is exactly what our organization, Move America Forward, is trying to do. We are tired of paying for their constant failures, corruption and anti-American attitudes â “ all of it expensive, I might add.
The United Nations has its hand out, seeking a complete renovation and expansion of its facilities in New York City, and they want the United States to provide the loan or loan guarantee to pay for it all.
Worse yet, the only debate in Washington seems to be whether the loan has a low interest rate or NO INTEREST at all!
The UN's current facilities are crumbling and in violation of building, health and safety codes. If it were a private business, it would have been closed long ago. Someone recently proposed turning the building over to Donald Trump â “ he would turn it into moneymaking condos in no time.
So, the UN needs a new building. But who says it must be built here in the U.S.? And as more details continue to surface about UN officials involved in the â Å“Oil for Armsâ ? corruption, why would any American want to host these offices here when the UN has become one of the safest havens for terrorists?
The timing is perfect to tell the UN that America's run as host nation to this corrupt institution has come to an end, and they can build their new palace in some other nation. The Sudan and Kosovo come to mind as two splendid places where UN officials can directly confront the world's struggles they are charged with addressing. In New York, they are most known for not paying their parking tickets!
In this post 9/11 world, the most fundamental international challenge is confronting the forces of terrorism, yet the United Nations has been a miserable failure on this front. A new report by the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change admits numerous failures by the UN to take effective measures to defeat terrorism.
The report raised extremely serious questions about the United Nations will to fight terrorism, and its ability to do so even if such will and determination exists.
The report says that following the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, UN Security Council sanctions against Al-Qaida and the Taliban have been failing. According to the report, the sanctions, â Å“suffer from lagging support and implementation by Member States and affect only a small subset of known Al-Qaida operatives, while a number of States are lagging behind in their compliance with the directives of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.â ?
It's amazing to watch UN officials coddle the likes of Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein when the UN is forced to admit they cannot rally member nations to remain committed in the fight against Al Qaeda. Dictators, despots, tyrants of all shape and size seem to do just as well at the UN as duly elected heads of the worlds democracies.
The United Nations was created after World War II as a place where freedom-loving nations can unite against tyranny. It now is a place where the supporters of tyranny have more sway than the freedom-loving countries.
Yet the American taxpayers have been paying billions of dollars to the United Nations every year.
Enough is enough. We need to bring about real change in the way we approach the United Nations. With former California State Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian I have launched an effort to remove the UN headquarters and UN officials from American soil and to reduce US contributions to the organization. We have started an an online petition at the website www.MoveAmericaForward.org where supporters can electronically sign the anti-UN petition and lend the effort their support.
I believe we can win this fight to evict the UN from the United States. This is really the first time in the history of the United Nations where the American public has seen the wayward drift of the organization from its original purpose. They are becoming aware of all the wrongdoing and corruption the UN has been engaged in.
And polling data supports our contention. A new poll by the Fox News Channel showed that by a margin of 54%-29%, the U.S. public believes the United Nations does not reflect the values of average Americans.
A United Nations that was originally founded according to its charter â Å“to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security,â ? has increasingly become a body that sides with those who find the use of terrorism against unarmed and innocent civilians tolerable.
Instead of serving as a rallying point for free nations and free people to unite to combat terrorism, the United Nations has become a safe harbor, apologist and defender of terrorist organizations and their agents.
Recently it has become clear that UN General Secretary Kofi Annan has been implicated in covering up the troubling â Å“Oil for Foodâ ? scandal, and stonewalling investigators. Money from the â Å“Oil for Armsâ ? scheme not only went to pay the families of Palestinian terrorists, and journalists and officials in countries opposing the Iraqi action, but it looks like it also went to purchase the weapons that so called â Å“insurgentsâ ? are now using in Iraq to kill coalition forces, Iraqi security forces, and innocent Iraqi civilians.
We believe that the United States of America should no longer serve as the host to an institution that serves as a forum for opposition to our national interests. We also believe that much of the money American taxpayers provide to subsidize the UN could be better spent elsewhere.
Melanie Morgan is a Talk Show Host and Co-Chair of Move America
And this, after a UN official called the US' tsunami relief efforts (and dollars) "stingy"....
