Churchill on UN

I've been thinking about this post from The Agonist for a few days, and decided it would be nice to share it with everybody. Winston Churchill is a folk hero of the Right both in the UK and the US, so at this time when Bully Bolton is being pressed on the world as US ambassador to the UN, it's interesting to look at what old Winnie had to say about the UN way back in 1946.

We must make sure that its work is fruitful, that it is a reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action, and not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true temple of peace in which the shields of many nations can some day be hung up, and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel. Before we cast away the solid assurances of national armaments for self-preservation we must be certain that our temple is built, not upon shifting sands or quagmires, but upon the rock. Anyone can see with his eyes open that our path will be difficult and also long, but if we persevere together as we did in the two world wars - though not, alas, in the interval between them - I cannot doubt that we shall achieve our common purpose in the end.

The US has worked to reduce Churchill's vision to that "cockpit in a Tower of Babel" and Bolton is being put forward to finish the job, robbing the UN of any teeth at all. Churchill would have preferred that the UN had it's own armed forces to call upon - fat chance of the Empire of the United States ever allowing that!

The author of the Agonist piece, Stirling Newbury, has written a powerful indictment of the sorry state the UN has fallen to. Yes it needs drastic reform - but that reform should be to reinvigorate and re-enfranchise it, not make it a toothless paper tiger which can only complain as powerful states ride roughshod over it's founding principles and the nations of their neighbours. Newbury sums it up well:

We should, in these difficult times, be grateful for any support the UN might have, but we should not accept a mischaracterization of the role of international organizations, nor a misreading of the history and character of the United Nations as an organization where its member states, by standing united against threats to peace, law and order, and the continued increase in global prosperity, join to act in concert. Because the greatest threat to sovereignty of peoples is not internationalism, but economic and political turmoil, and the horrors that come in the wake of failed states and lawless actions of lawless dictators.

In Churchill's memory, we should not allow the efforts of the current US administration to kill off the UN to continue unchecked.