Leaving it to the U.N. hasn't worked for the people of Darfur in Sudan. Last week, the U.N. Security Council announced their long-awaited peacekeeping force won't be prepared to commence operations in Darfur at the beginning of 2008 as anticipated. More than a quarter-million people have died of rape, murder, starvation, dehydration and disease there since 2003. The U.N. has been "struggling" to assemble a peacekeeping force there ever since. According to spokesman Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been in "constant talks with defense ministers around the world" and the Security Council will reconvene "soon" to discuss what to do about the problem.
Solving people's problems is, after all, what the nice folks at the U.N. say they do for us -- in between jet-setting global cocktail parties and afternoon naps. This week, for example, they made another run at seizing control of Nobel laureate Al Gore's Internet. At a U.N.-sponsored conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representatives from around the world complained that the Internet is just one more manifestation of the American empire and that it would be better if it were managed by the folks who brought us the Oil-for-Food scandal and who once elevated Libya to chair of the U.N.'s Human Rights Committee. "Practical steps" must be taken, said Russia's Konstantin Novoderejhkin, to put control of the worldwide Internet "under the control of the international community."
The so-called "international community" apparently likes the idea of controlling things -- even the numbers it creates. This week, the UNAIDS Committee -- the U.N. organization that has spent billions of dollars "fighting the global AIDS pandemic" -- had to confess that, for years, it has inflated the estimates of AIDS cases around the world. Some suggest the overblown calculations were used as a rationale to raise more money. Regardless of the explanation, the U.N.'s proclivity to over-hype bad news that requires "global solutions" is important. The day after officials at Turtle Bay were forced to confess years of fraudulent estimates on AIDS, another U.N. agency -- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- warned of "abrupt or irreversible climate changes" if the "international community" doesn't act to reverse the trend.
By its own actions, the U.N. has proved itself to be, at best, irresponsible -- and, at worst, downright dangerous -- to the interests of the American people. This week, yet another international company -- Vitol, an oil distributor -- pleaded guilty to grand larceny for giving bribes in the infamous U.N. Oil-for-Food program during Saddam Hussein's reign in Iraq. An investigation led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker found the U.N.-administered program was corrupted by 2,200 companies in 66 countries that paid $1.8 billion in kickbacks to Iraqi officials.
In his New York Times best-selling book, "Surrender Is Not an Option," former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton offers a detailed analysis of the pervasive corruption and inertia inside the organization -- and suggests meaningful remedies. His lucid critique and his distinguished service make "Surrender Is Not an Option" a must-read for those who care about the fact that our tax dollars are being wasted by incompetent U.N. bureaucrats on utopian ideals. Hence, we should be thankful that there are people such as John Bolton who are willing to expose the folly of the turkeys at Turtle Bay.