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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Political/War Lounge > Help me list all the successes of the UN

Help me list all the successes of the UN
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Spliffdaddy
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Apr 27, 2006, 11:01 PM
 
Because I sure as hell can't think of any.

Seriously.

Can you?
     
dcmacdaddy
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Apr 28, 2006, 12:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy
Because I sure as hell can't think of any.

Seriously.

Can you?
Care to provide the topic and parameters in which success or failure will be measured?


Is the eradication of smallpox--through the World Health Organization, an agency of the UN--considered a success? Or, is it considered a failure because it took so long to happen?

What about the reduction in occurrence of other major viral diseases in the developing world due to the efforts of WHO? Are they successes because of the major reductions in occurrence or failures because of the inability to eradicate them completely?


List some possible subjects to debate and the parameters within which success or failure can be measured and then we have a subject for discusssion. Because right now you are just trolling.
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Spliffdaddy  (op)
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Apr 28, 2006, 12:42 AM
 
I'd count those things as successes.

My question was a serious one. I honestly would like to know what good things the UN has accomplished.

I'm undecided on whether the UN is worth keeping around. Seems that there must have been a time when it was worthwhile.

thanks for the input.
     
subego
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Apr 28, 2006, 02:31 PM
 
Formation of Israel
Gulf War I
     
BRussell
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Apr 28, 2006, 02:44 PM
 
Remember that the only wars (I think) that have been sanctioned by the UN were wars started by someone named 'Bush:' Iraq (1990) and Afghanistan.
     
olePigeon
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Apr 28, 2006, 02:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy
What about the reduction in occurrence of other major viral diseases in the developing world due to the efforts of WHO?
I think The Who can cure anything.
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Powerbook
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Apr 28, 2006, 07:23 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy
I'd count those things as successes.

My question was a serious one. I honestly would like to know what good things the UN has accomplished.

I'm undecided on whether the UN is worth keeping around. Seems that there must have been a time when it was worthwhile.

thanks for the input.
You got to be kidding. That's a question that could come from a kid, but not from a grown-up person. Who seems to have access to the Internet, where everything including the U.N. is online.
Maybe that's for starters: http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart.html
Feel free to click from there, UNHCR, UNICEF, WTO, WHO, World Bank, that should all ring a bell or two...

Regards
PB.
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Spliffdaddy  (op)
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Apr 28, 2006, 07:34 PM
 
Yeah, but I was asking about UN successes.
     
ironknee
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Apr 28, 2006, 07:35 PM
 
unicef
     
cpt kangarooski
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Apr 28, 2006, 07:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by BRussell
Remember that the only wars (I think) that have been sanctioned by the UN were wars started by someone named 'Bush:' Iraq (1990) and Afghanistan.
Also the Korean War. Military action under UN auspices tended not to happen during the Cold War because the US and USSR were always opposed to one another (the Korean War was authorized during a Russian boycott of the UN), and it had a tough time doing its job with the split in the Security Council.

It's done considerably better since the USSR fell, though, with any number of authorizations of military force around the world.

Remember that the primary purpose of the UN is to prevent WW3 from starting by providing both a way for countries to engage in a dialogue, and for the rest of the world to squash troublemakers in a unified manner without setting off a chain of reprisals (see WW1). Perhaps it isn't as good at this as it could be, but it hasn't made things worse, either.
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Kevin
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Apr 28, 2006, 07:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by BRussell
Remember that the only wars (I think) that have been sanctioned by the UN were wars started by someone named 'Bush:' Iraq (1990) and Afghanistan.
Yeah when Clinton started em, He never asked for UN permission.
     
abe
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Apr 28, 2006, 08:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by ironknee
unicef
You'd think so. I sure did. But I was wrong.
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rambo47
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Apr 28, 2006, 08:17 PM
 
Let's not forget the U.N. was the genius group that drew the border lines to form Yugoslavia.
     
goMac
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Apr 28, 2006, 08:24 PM
 
Ironically the UN is yet another failed US led coalition.
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abe
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Apr 28, 2006, 08:29 PM
 
Undisguised Anti-Americanism

Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing a nationwide "town meeting" on October 11, 2001, insisted that the United Nations "is at the center" of the global alliance against terrorism. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan insists that only the leadership of the world organization can provide "global legitimacy for the long-term response to terrorism."

Criminologist Harvey Kushner, a professor at Long Island State university and a widely respected analyst of terrorism, has a very different view. Professor Kushner compares the role of the UN to that of Afghanistan's Taliban government in sheltering Osama bin Laden: "The UN provides...


http://www.getusout.org/artman/publi...index_19.shtml

In the Old West, Sheriffs didn't recruit cattle rustlers into their posses. Honest law enforcement officers haven't enlisted the mafia in the struggle against organized crime. it makes just as little sense for our leaders to turn to the UN for help in the war on terrorism.

Why risk the lives of American fighting men on distant battlefields if we are going to allow the international terrorist network to maintain a beachhead within our own shores? If we are serious about winning the war on terrorism, an essential step should be to get our nation out of the United Nations, and to expel that organization from our country.
America should know the political orientation of government officials who might be in a position to adversely influence the future of this country. http://tinyurl.com/4vucu5
     
abe
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Apr 28, 2006, 08:32 PM
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html

UN clash looms as Iran defies nuclear ban
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 29/04/2006)

The United Nations Security Council last night faced its gravest crisis since the Iraq war after its nuclear watchdog concluded that Iran had defied its calls for a suspension of its nuclear programme.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency precipitated a showdown at the UN between America and its European allies, who are calling for a tough resolution mandating compliance, and Russia and China, who urge a softer stance.
America should know the political orientation of government officials who might be in a position to adversely influence the future of this country. http://tinyurl.com/4vucu5
     
ghporter
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Apr 28, 2006, 09:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by BRussell
Remember that the only wars (I think) that have been sanctioned by the UN were wars started by someone named 'Bush:' Iraq (1990) and Afghanistan.
Um....WRONG. Let's talk about 1951, shall we. While the name was "police action," if it walks like a war and kills people like a war, it's a war. Korea.

Exceptional international cooperation, and while political concerns caused the "coalition" to give back the 90+% of North Korea won by American troops on a drive toward China, the point was made and the North came to the table to talk.

Then there's the Belgian Congo issue in 1960. Read up on it. The UN provided peace keepers that wound up being combat troops to fight rebels who wanted to run the white folk out of the Belgian Congo. No election, no "please, your ancestors stole this land from our ancestors," just hack and shoot innocent farmers to terrorize them into leaving. The UN's actions made for an orderly evacuation of the Belgian nationals there and slowed down a brutal and senseless regime. Which was overthrown from within, I might add.

Lots of others. Read history. Or put up with repeating it. Iraq is the (hopefully) final chapter in a story started before the turn of the 20th century. Maybe we can manage to undo most of the gooberage the English, the League of Nations, and later the UN's political rabble made of the area.

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undotwa
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Apr 28, 2006, 09:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by Powerbook
You got to be kidding. That's a question that could come from a kid, but not from a grown-up person. Who seems to have access to the Internet, where everything including the U.N. is online.
Maybe that's for starters: http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart.html
Feel free to click from there, UNHCR, UNICEF, WTO, WHO, World Bank, that should all ring a bell or two...

Regards
PB.
No you are mistaken. This is an interesting question and the answers of which cannot be simply derived from the UN web site. He is asking us to evaluate successfulness. Could one classify the Gulf War as a success? Was the Korean War a success? etc.
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Helmling
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Apr 28, 2006, 10:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by Kevin
Yeah when Clinton started em, He never asked for UN permission.
Out of curiosity, what the heck are you talking about?
     
BRussell
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Apr 28, 2006, 10:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by Helmling
Out of curiosity, what the heck are you talking about?
I believe he's referring to the fact that Clinton never got a UN Security Council resolution to approve the insertion of his troops into Lower Lewinsky.
     
SimeyTheLimey
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Apr 28, 2006, 11:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by Powerbook
You got to be kidding. That's a question that could come from a kid, but not from a grown-up person. Who seems to have access to the Internet, where everything including the U.N. is online.
Maybe that's for starters: http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart.html
Feel free to click from there, UNHCR, UNICEF, WTO, WHO, World Bank, that should all ring a bell or two...

Regards
PB.
The World Bank is only kinda sorta part of the UN. The two organizations have a formal relationship, but the World Bank does not answer to the UN.

Link

Cooperation between the Bank and the UN has been in place since the founding of the two organizations (1944 and 1945) and focuses on economic and social areas of mutual concern such as reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and investing in people. In addition to a shared agenda, the Bank and the UN have almost the same membership. Only a handful of UN member countries, including Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, are not Bank members.
The Bank's formal relationship with the United Nations is defined by a 1947 agreement which recognizes the Bank as an independent specialized agency of the UN as well as a member and observer in many UN bodies. A recent review of the nature of collaboration activities between the United Nations and Bretton Woods Institutions confirms that a multifaceted, extensive and growing partnership exists between them.

The Bank also has links with the UN at the political and policy-making level in the work of the General Assembly and its committees, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), whose members recently participated in an exchange of dialogue on development issues with the Bank's Executive Directors, and such bodies as the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination. The broad range of positive cooperation at the global and country levels includes the following:

At the executive level, the Bank President and the Secretary-General engage in an on-going dialogue on substantive issues such as poverty eradication, capacity building in Africa, humanitarian and post-conflict issues, human rights and financing of development. Additionally, President Wolfensohn [EDIT: this is out of date, Paul Wolfowitz is now the president] actively participates in a range of UN fora, such as the ECOSOC Substantive Session policy dialogue, and maintains an on-going dialogue with heads of UN Programs, Specialized Agencies and Commissions, such as the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
At the political level, as represented by member states, the Bank has observer status in several UN bodies including, the General Assembly and its Second and Third Committees and ECOSOC, which address issues that bear directly on the work of the Bank, e.g. population, poverty, HIV/AIDS, gender issues and women and development, governance and civil society, communications, and the environment. In addition, the Bank maintains an active dialogue with individual member states and political groups such as the G-77 and the European Union.
Something similar exists with the WTO, which, like the WB has separate membership criteria that have nothing to do with being a member of the UN. And for that matter, the same could be said for other multilateral organizations like the African Development Bank, or even NATO. The UN's charter is such that other multilateral organizations fall broadly within it. But they don't answer to the UN and nor are they funded through the UN, so functionally really aren't part of the organization as such.

An interesting side-note. Many of the genuinely UN specialized agencies that are quite successful in fact date to the League of Nations. So I am not sure that their success can really be attributed to the UN since they predate it. They are simply successful on their own merits.

And of course, we won't go to the really notoriously corrupt agencies like UNESCO . . .
     
Helmling
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Apr 29, 2006, 12:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by BRussell
I believe he's referring to the fact that Clinton never got a UN Security Council resolution to approve the insertion of his troops into Lower Lewinsky.
But that operation was clearly under U.S. jurisdiction. I swear, it's just like the Republicans to try to limit insertions of this kind. Geesh.
     
cpt kangarooski
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Apr 29, 2006, 12:37 AM
 
Simey--
The League of Nations failed, unfortunately, but it certainly was an interesting organization. Of course, they could never shake those rumors about their shadowy operatives in black autogyros.
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SimeyTheLimey
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Apr 29, 2006, 07:09 AM
 
Originally Posted by cpt kangarooski
Simey--
The League of Nations failed, unfortunately, but it certainly was an interesting organization. Of course, they could never shake those rumors about their shadowy operatives in black autogyros.
LOL!

Originally Posted by BRussell
I believe he's referring to the fact that Clinton never got a UN Security Council resolution to approve the insertion of his troops into Lower Lewinsky.
I believe actually that it was upper Lewinski.
     
pooka
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Apr 29, 2006, 05:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by SimeyTheLimey
I believe actually that it was upper Lewinski.
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BRussell
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Apr 29, 2006, 05:54 PM
 
Haha. Well I believe history shows that Clinton did make an incursion into the lower peninsula, but he was criticized for sending a $100 cigar into a $10 thong and hitting a whale in the ass.
     
   
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