U.N.'s Iran, China and Russia failures point to why Trump must get tougher, and reduce payments

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Amid the major the events of 2020, the United Nations’ 75th anniversary in October will pass unnoticed by all except a few politicians and a few of the media. It deserves to be ignored. Throughout its history, the U.N. hasn’t functioned as intended by its founders. Instead, it has often functioned as if it were a mental asylum run by its inmates. 

The United Nations is a diplomatic triumph of hope over experience. The League of Nations, formed in the aftermath of World War I, quickly proved itself incapable of preventing or ending wars. 

The U.N., like the League, was founded on idealistic notions of maintaining peace based on globalist cooperation. That’s not how the U.N. turned out.

The U.N. General Assembly is a forum that gives dictators and despots the attention and appearance of legitimacy they don’t deserve. It’s supported by a highly overpaid bureaucracy and a global media that bashes America and Israel. The U.N. functions in an atmosphere in which corruption – moral, intellectual and financial – flourishes. The U.N. would be improved if it were run by the mafia because the latter holds its employees accountable for job performance.

The U.N. Security Council has five permanent veto-holding members (the U.S., the U.K., Russia, China and France). It can pass resolutions that are supposed to have the force and effect of international law. Those resolutions are regularly ignored by our adversaries.

Consider what our investments in the U.N. has done for us, and will do, this year. 

• World Health Organization, which made itself a propaganda arm of the Chinese regime in the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the Trump administration has given notice that the U.S. will pull out of the WHO. 

The U.N. has a gaggle of “special rapporteurs” who make political inquiries into whatever the U.N. assigns. Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, said on July 8 that the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran’s top terrorist, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, was illegal because Washington didn’t provide enough evidence to prove that he was an imminent threat. 

Ms. Callamard’s report is evidence that the U.N.’s legitimacy scam is still alive. She, like other U.N. bureaucrats — and most Democrats — believes that the U.S. can’t take any international action without the U.N.’s permission. 

The Trump administration reacted appropriately by ignoring Ms. Callamard’s report.

• In early July, 53 members of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, led by Cuba, declared support for China’s imposition of a new law on Hong Kong that targets pro-democracy political action and is enforced in Hong Kong by Beijing’s own police. 

On Oct. 18, the U.N. arms embargo on Iran will expire. That embargo prohibits members from selling Iran weapon systems such as ships, missiles and aircraft.

Predictably, Russia and China are opposing any extension of the embargo. When the embargo expires, they will “lend” Iran the funds to buy pretty much anything it wants, including, for example, the highly-capable Russian S-400 anti-aircraft/anti-missile system. Their “loans” can’t be repaid because Mr. Trump’s economic sanctions on Iran have left its economy in tatters.

We should remember that the arms embargo is a by-product of former President Obama’s 2015 dangerous nuclear weapons deal with Iran. The deal imposed a risible inspections regime on Iran’s nuclear program and ignored its missile program entirely.  

We should also remember that Mr. Obama, instead of presenting that deal to the Senate for ratification, sought and obtained a risible “ratification” of his deal from the U.N. Security Council. Former Vice President Joe Biden has said he’d rejoin that deal if he is elected.

The Trump administration said in June that if the embargo is lifted, the U.S. will try to invoke the “snap-back” of U.N. sanctions on Iran. A U.S. motion to effect that “snap-back” won’t get enough support to even force a vote.

• Though Mr. Trump has said he wants to reduce our U.N. payments, in 2018 they still amounted to about $10 billion in “dues” and voluntary contributions to U.N. agencies, programs and commissions. He needs to get a lot tougher on the U.N. and vastly reduce our payments to it.

The only reason we need to remain a U.N. member is the veto we can exercise in the Security Council. The veto enables us to stop its worst actions. Without it, for example, the U.N. Security Council would impose severe economic sanctions on allies such as Israel.

We can keep our veto for a lot less than $10 billion. 

When I was writing my book about the U.N., “Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse than You Think,” British historian Paul Johnson told me that America should leave the U.N. and start all over with democratic and law-abiding nations. That concept was embodied in President George W. Bush’s 2003 Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which created a coalition of nations whose forces seized nuclear materials bound for Libya.

The PSI, functioning entirely independent of the U.N., proved the effectiveness of American leadership outside of the U.N. Mr. Trump should adopt the PSI model and use it to deal with the U.N.’s failures on Iran, China and Russia. There will be many opportunities for him to do so.

American conservatism doesn’t reject cooperation with other nations. But that cooperation functions best outside globalist organizations that claim control over U.S. actions and policies.

• Jed Babbin, a deputy undersecretary of Defense in the George H.W. Bush administration, is the author of “In the Words of Our Enemies.”