At 60, It’s Time for the U.N. to Shape Up or Shut Down

A recent Presidential proclamation declared Monday, October 24, to be United Nations Day here in the United States. The occasion, the proclamation explained, was the 60th Anniversary of the world body’s founding in the twilight of the Second World War.

Indeed, for the last several months, the U.N. has sponsored a variety of 60th Anniversary celebrations.

But 60 years after it was founded with such high hopes, the U.N. has little to celebrate. Rather than distinguishing itself through its achievements, the world organization is notable for its failures and irrelevance.

The U.N. founders would be ashamed to see the organization today. It is beset by scandal, twisted by incompetent and corrupt leadership, and dominated by anti-democratic regimes and factious regional blocks.

What’s more, with each passing day, a U.N. scandal seems to erupt. In recent months, the world has learned the U.N. presided over the largest financial scandal in history and allowed Saddam Hussein to pocket billions. Worse, we’ve heard the disgusting reports that U.N. peacekeepers routinely trade food for sex from underage girls, raping and abusing the very people they are supposed to protect.

In the past two weeks, we’ve learned of a new U.N. scandal that once again implicates senior leaders at the world body’s headquarters. But only on Friday, three days before President Bush proclaimed United Nations Day, Claudia Rosett and George Russell reported that a major U.N. contractor ― previously headed by a close advisor to Secretary General Kofi Annan ― may have financial links to Al Qaeda.

Earlier in the year, Annan pledged to use the occasion of the U.N.’s 60th Anniversary to push for sweeping reforms. A much-ballyhooed U.N. “high level panel” handed up a series of recommendations that included Security Council reform, management and external oversight improvements, and more. In September, Annan called together a summit of world leaders to finalize the package and agree on specifics. But the reforms fell far short for some ― like the United States ― and went too far for others ― like China. But in a testament to the state of Annan’s leadership and effectiveness, the summit failed, and the push for reform has fizzled.

So we are left with an international organization, funded in large measure by American taxpayers, that is utterly failing at its central mission to advance the causes of peace and freedom. Yet, instead of recognizing its failures, the U.N. continues to meddle in affairs well outside its portfolio, like trying to take control of the Internet, while its bureaucrats-run-amok pursue an agenda of social engineering that would make Karl Marx proud.

If the U.N. were a private business, its bankruptcy and liquidation would have long since been concluded. So by any objective evaluation, the world body’s 60th Anniversary celebration is both perverse and pathetic. Instead of spending yet more American money on balloons and champagne to mark the occasion, its time for the U.N. to shape up or shut down.