The United Nations.

If any organization reflects the difference between an idea and the reality of humanity it is the United Nations.

Created after the second world war, by a group of victors who imagined a new world order that would lead us to a utopian future where men would talk with each other as equals and we would avoid the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Conquest, War, Famine and Death, foretold to us in the Bible.[1]  The United Nations was a vision of the Progressives of the day, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (and their foggy bottom boys), Winston Churchill, the Allied Nations, Nationalist China, and Joseph Stalin.

As we look at the history of the United Nations and its move towards that utopian world one has to ask, has it earned its keep?  Has it stopped conquest, war, famine, and death?  As best as I can tell not too effectively.  It has a lot of subgroups all working on the big issues, but as we see in today’s vote of condemnation over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it can’t even settle a simple question like are the Russians indiscriminately killing civilians, and should Russia be kicked off the Human Rights Council?

Speaking of the Human Rights Council, who does the UN believe are the countries best equipped to speak to the issues of human rights?  Funny you should ask.

The council is made up of one President and four Vice Presidents. The current President is Ambassador Villegas, from Argentina.  According to Human Rights Watch^[2] Argentina’s problems include police abuse, poor prison conditions, and endemic violence against women.

Other members include Armenia, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Eritrea, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Marshall Island, Mauritania, Mexico, Montenegro, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Qatar, Rep of Korea, Russian Federation, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.

I know we can all find abuses in any of these countries and clearly, those without sin should cast the first stone[3], but there are truly some rogue states in this council who have no standing when it comes to defining how to protect human rights.  Coming immediately to mind are India, Pakistan, Gambia, Somalia, the UAE, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Today, the UN voted to sanction Russia and remove it from the council.  The vote was 98 for, 24 against, and 58 I don’t want to get involved.  So, who voted against sanctioning Russia?

Votes against included Russia (no surprise) and all the countries who like Russia like China, Syria, Cuba, Vietnam, Belarus, Yemen, most of the ‘stans, etc.

Those who abstained were mostly 3^rd world countries that had little to gain and much to lose if Russia comes back from its pariah status.

In an interesting display of “I’ll show you”  Russia claimed they couldn’t be suspended because they quit!  Not the whole UN mind you, just the Human Rights Council.

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[1] https://www.learnreligions.com/four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-4843887

[2] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/argentina#

[3] Bible John 8:7 

Russia’s Grand Delusion – One Month In

Here we are just a shade over one month into Russia’s war with Ukraine.  All the analysts and all the pundits can’t put Russia back together again.  We can speculate ad nauseum as to what drove its President to begin this war but what we do know with some certainty is he didn’t imagine it would involve him in a protracted land war.  His experience with Georgia lasted 12-days as he annexed parts of Georgia back into greater Russia.  His takeover of Crimea, under the illusion of “self-determination” took a little over a month, but involved only a minimal amount of Russian force, when coupled with the defection of the Crimean military supposedly there to defend the Ukraine state.

In both cases Putin and Russia was condemned by the west, but little else.  European leaders continued to increase their dependence on Russian oil while reducing their defense spending.  Putin continued to enrich himself and his friends.  So how would he not think he could do in Ukraine what he had done in Georgia and Crimea?  What was different?

For one he faced a President who loved his country, more than his wealth.  He faced a people who loved their country and their president, and a military that did not defect to ensure their safety.  

We can compare his actions today with his lack of action two years ago, and say the unknown response of Trump may have delayed his choice, but I think in the end how the United States would react was only a factor of timing.  He waited until a “professional” politician was back in charge.  Someone’s whose rhetoric would outperform his actions.  In other words, a president who was predictable.

The 64-thousand-dollar question is, how will this end?  Wars always end badly.  The loser suffers the worst, but only slightly worse than the winners.  I suspect Ukraine will stand and Russia will grow weary and leave, but with Vladimir Putin that is not a certainty.  It will take western investment and a generation to rebuild Ukraine, for Russia, I’m not sure what will change.  Dictatorial rule is the only thing constant in Russia. 

A Republic, If You Can Keep It.

There is a popular story of Ben Franklin emerging from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and being asked by a woman ““well, Doctor, what do we have, a republic or a monarchy?” To which Ben supposedly answered, “a republic, if you can keep it.”

That statement carries significance in today’s world.  We see threats to the Republic all around us, both internally and externally.  We as citizens have allowed forces, we believe are beyond our control, to drive us into fractured elements.   All seeking our own supremacy.

We no longer seek a common ground of understanding but have chosen sides where there can be no compromise.  One side is allegedly filled with people who would destroy the republic in the name of freedom, and the other side would destroy freedom in the name of the republic.  The sadly humorous thing is neither side recognizes the risks of their position, and at the extremes both views are interchangeable.  Both extremes would destroy the republic in pursuit of their own agenda, and both would destroy the freedom to accomplish that.

I think the irony of this reality is striking and so obvious I am either insane in my vision, or the reality we face is truly being manipulated by the power brokers.  In either case, we continue our movements toward some new world reality where minorities carry a louder voice than the majority and there is no longer a sense of the common good. 

Right now, and I’ve said this to friends, I think it must feel like the world did in the 1930s, where the radical elements of Germany, Italy, and Japan moved toward world conquest, while the west sought only to maintain the peace, at any cost.  Russia, at the time, was a wild card with Stalin more worried about internal threats than that posed by Germany.

Vladimir Putin has taken on the role of Hitler.  He wants to return Russia to its former glory (I assume as it was under the USSR and not the Czars), regardless of the cost of human lives.  Meanwhile, in the west, we’ve chosen again the path of appeasement we followed when Hitler began absorbing adjacent regions in the name of a greater Germany.  We didn’t challenge Putin when he began stirring up Russian separatists in Georgia, we accepted his claim to Crimea, and only now are we beginning to send supplies to Ukraine as it fights for its independence against the Russian invasion.

The question for us in America is, is this the end of our greatness or the beginning?  It took the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Germany’s declaration of war to bring us into the second World War, our leadership is afraid if we were to actively engage in the defense of Ukraine it would be the beginning of the next World War.  Better, they say, we quietly work behind the scenes to bolster Ukrainian defenses to help them fight this invasion.  Unfortunately for all of us the UN has no power to compel peace, it can only engage in peacemaking war if the Security Council agrees, and Russia learned its lesson the last time when it boycotted the UN and America got everyone to agree to defend South Korea.

We are rightfully afraid of a nuclear conflict, and it was only a couple of years ago the left was warning Trump would start a nuclear war.  The thing was -- Russia and China worried about the same thing, and nothing happened.  Now Trump is gone and I imagine Russia and China know the U.S. does not have the will to engage and risk that possibility.  We will be more worried about how our economy is doing, how the move to socialism is working out, and how the shift to “green” energy will save us from climate change.

Meanwhile, we can expect double-digit inflation, and soaring gas prices as this administration stick to the idea we should buy someone else’s oil rather than encourage the self-sufficient posture we were moving towards.  If we stop buying Russia’s oil, whose will we buy?  Saudi?  Iran?  Venezuela?  Mexico?  It seems according to Jen Psaki our energy policy isn’t to blame for American companies’ decision not to drill here.  She could be right, but that would be a first for this administration.

As we focus on the important things in life, like equity, diversity, pronouns, and free college for those who fail out of high school the world will go on.  The only question is will the greatness of our Republic?