Give U.N. the Boot, Build Up NATO

Washington, DC (TLS). The United Nations is dead as a viable means of promoting peace and human dignity and liberty. With each passing year the organization becomes bogged down in attempts to placate terrorist regimes that promote the global domination of Islam, as well as other governments whose very existence makes a mockery of everything for which the U.N. originally stood.

For me, the inclusion of Cuba and Syria on 'human rights' commissions was the absolute last straw. They may as well have put Hitler in charge of the humanitarian treatment of Jews. The organization is now a joke. The United States should once again withhold all funding from the U.N., except this time we should withdraw for good and place the funds into the building up of NATO as an alternative organization.

This is the only rational approach to take with an organization that not only bashes the country that give it its birth, taking sides with the avowed enemies of human liberty, but is totally engulfed by massive corruption from top to bottom on a scale that has never been witnessed in human history.

John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, granted a rare interview recently, one of his first since leaving his post. During that interview, an excerpt of which was posted by Pamela Geller Oshry over at Atlas Shrugs, Bolton delineated a plan by which the U.S. could belong to an international organization of true allies that support our vision of human liberty while gradually withdrawing our presence from the U.N.

Here is a part of the Bolton interview:

'Bolton's disillusion with the UN is such that he would like it to face competition from other international organizations. The choice is to fix it or go somewhere else. Bolton favors building NATO as a rival in the belief that it could expand into a caucus of democracies--a permanent coalition of the willing.

'Fifteen years ago people thought NATO would either go out of area or out of existence and now it is in Afghanistan and it is all but NATO--absent Germany and France--in Iraq,' he said. 'I think NATO should go global. There is no reason why Japan and Australia shouldn't join NATO.

'NATO could also make room for Israel. Why not? he said. Israel is a European country, fundamentally. Turkey is a European country and it is further east.'

This is the most sensible solution to the problem of the U.N. that I have heard in many a day. With Japan, Australia, and Israel joining NATO, we would have a powerful global presence of democracies that are committed to the common goal of human liberty. The U.N. would have trouble sustaining itself against the competition NATO would provide, particularly if the U.S. withdraws funding from the organization.

And this brings us to the heart of the matter--the U.N. is no longer a relevant or trustworthy organization. Kofi Anan's reign proved just how corrupt and anti-American the U.N. has become. It is my view that the organization is too far gone to fix. It is dead as a viable organization that values human liberty and dignity. It is now time to bury it before its stench reaches unbearable proportions.

The United States must put the taxpayers' money to use in international organizations that share our goals and values. NATO is that organization.