The U.N. at work in Georgia?

Obviously Mark is reading different things about the U.N. than I am, but since the U.N. didn’t do what it was originally intended to do and since Mark says it is “far different from what it was originally intended to be,” maybe that’s all to the good – as long as it can keep the peace in some way. Hmmm. Let’s skip the esoteric discussion and return to the real world to check on what the UN does nowadays in regard to stopping a military conflict. Let’s pick a military conflict at random:

Georgian government says Russia is expanding its presence in Gori Here’s an LA Times article. Let’s see how the UN is doing: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ossetia15-2008aug15,0,3729955.story Hmmm. No mention of the UN at all. Maybe I didn’t read it carefully enough. Let’s try another article:

This one is by the AP: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDNLWfQWKrQc48pITBUg9KT_6oVwD92I3F3O3 Hmmmm. No mention of the UN once again.

Okay, maybe the progressive UN doesn’t settle disputes any longer. Maybe it is doing bigger and better things that I’m just not familiar with being the war-monger that I am (according to Mike). Okay, let’s look at this thing Mark says is “thankfully false,” namely that when a nation is weak it wants the stronger nation to rely on rules. But when it is strong it doesn’t want to be constrained by rules. The U.S. rather than the U.N. is trying to keep the peace in Georgia by trying to get Russia to abide by the rules. As George Friedman told us yesterday in the article http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/russo_georgian_war_and_balance_power , the U.S. is at the present time “weak” in Georgia. Notice that it is trying to get Russia to live up to the rules. Russia on the other hand is “strong” in Georgia and as Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister says, "One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state. . ."

So, since Russia is “strong” in Georgia and intends to support the removal of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and, presumably, its reassertion into the former Soviet Union – or its modern equivalent, it is ignoring the “rules,” i.e., the cease fire agreement. The U.S., being “weak” is sending aid to Georgia. Whoopee.

This example of the modern-day U.N. at work has been brought to you by,

Lawrence Helm