Sunday, September 17, 2017

Sort of UN-American, If You Ask Me


                On Tuesday, President Trump will address the United Nations for the very first time. (I know, the media would like you to believe he’s been ruining their world for years, but that was somebody else whom they’ll never blame.) It is likely he will need to talk about climate change and North Korea and whether an irrelevant and ineffective organization like the UN is compatible with the America First Agenda we voted into office last November—sorry libs.

                But what the world is really waiting to hear is where President Trump will stand on Obama’s Iranian birthday present and clear path to nuclear armament, I mean nuclear energy.

                The New York Times once again has both leads written:

                “Trump caves in like a girl scout platoon and apologizes weakly to the UN about everything mean that he said without thinking and agrees to give Iran whatever it wants and now we have no credibility with or respect from anybody in the world community and North Korea will probably blow up California.” Is that about how you’d like to see it, Ann Coulter?

                Or “Trump doubles down on tough talk and reiterates why we won’t finance global wealth distribution disguised as climate concern and continues to insist that if North Korea attacks we will annihilate them. Additionally, he told the UN we don’t really need them and that Iran needs to rethink how much they like living above ground, thereby throwing the entire planet into an unstable state that threatens to end life as we know it.”

                I’m kind of hoping for the latter, although I don’t think demonstrating strength in the face of global cowardice will result in an unstable environment but I do hope it ends life as the left would like to know it.

                First of all the U.S. pays 22% of the UN operating budget. That percentage was arrived at through some complicated formula involving size of country population and ability and willingness to pay, which could be described as naivete and willingness to be used like a bar of soap. China is a real close second at paying 10% of the budget because their population is so much smaller and…hey, wait!

                Whatever. Our part amounts to $1.2 billion which seems a trifling amount to a country in debt now over $20,000,000,000,000 (that should be trillion if I counted my zeroes right).

                Then of course there’s the peacekeeping budget, which is separate. It looks like we will pay another $2.2 billion this year for that which brings us to a total of 29% of the UN budget. China is still at 10% overall. There are 193 member nations in the UN. Some of them must be really tiny.

                It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve ignored our own laws, especially when it comes to wanting the rest of the world to like us, but in 1997 Bill Clinton signed a law limiting our participation in the United Nations to a maximum of 25% of their total expenditure. Oops. And that’s not just this year. Last year we were 28% and change. We’ve been as high as 30% and never under 25%.  (Check Politifact, Wikipedia, any number of internet sources.)

                And don’t even get me started on who sends the most men and women into harm’s way when the UN decides to launch a peacekeeping mission (read, “We will have the US of A kick your ass if you don’t listen to us”).

 

                They’ve never even let us be in charge of the stupid clubhouse, although we built it and house it on our shore cuz we may be the least likely place to be bombed, temporarily forgetting the World Trade Center. Since 1946 when the UN was formed the Secretaries-General have all been from smaller countries—Norway, Sweden, Burma, Austria, Peru, Egypt, Ghana, South Korea and currently some fellow named Antonio Guterres from Portugal. Portugal?

                I know, I know, if they let an American be Sec-Gen, Russia would probably drop out, in spite of how hard they worked to make Donald Trump president.

                It’s not like the UN doesn’t do some good stuff—food and refugee aid during disasters; peacekeeping when it’s needed and sure, who better to do that then us; helping children; war crimes prosecution; reproductive health and population management (?????); fighting AIDS; and bossing the US around like they have more to say about our stuff than we do.

                If they want to deliver food and aid to earthquake or genocide victims, then may whoever’s God a particular country subscribes to bless them and the US will probably happily overpay. I’m ok with that.

                But if we need to tell North Korea we’re going to turn them into a grease spot if they don’t be careful, or if we need to tell Iran, “Nope. Not a real treaty. Just another BS wet dream Barack Obama had,” then the UN should shut up and be happy we let them play on our shore.

                Here are six reasons I borrowed from the Washington Times (that’s the little paper democrats in Washington don’t read) that President Trump should tell Iran and the UN to take their deal and shove it:

1.       The agreement and super-comforting pinky swear promise that Iran made to not develop anything that will blow up with their now unrestricted ability to purchase plutonium expires in 15 years. There is no plan for after that. My grandson will be 15 years old. It will matter to him.

2.       The agreement calls for the UN to give Iran 24-DAY NOTICE before any outside inspectors can be sent in to check out nuclear sites. You could move or hide just about anything in 24 days even if you aren’t David Copperfield.

3.       All economic sanctions were removed under the agreement before Iran’s abandonment of nuclear weapons manufacture could be verified.  It is still not verified, but sleep well.

4.       There are absolutely no consequences in the agreement for violation of said agreement by the Iranians. There is some vague language about the possible reinstatement of some of the previous economic sanctions but no other penalty.

5.       US and Canadian inspectors are NOT allowed to participate in any inspections of Iranian nuclear sites. “Inspectors will be from countries that have approved diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In other words, folks dependent on Iran for oil.

6.       And nothing in the agreement actually matters anyway because the UN agency that would normally carry out the inspections cut a “secret and separate” deal with Iran that would allow Iran to use it’s own inspectors, which pretty much neutered any kind of watchdog oversight to make sure Iran is playing by even the loose and lenient rules to which they agreed.

That is so comforting, considering that Kim Jong Un is the only guy on the planet that keeps anyone from saying Iran is the craziest, most unstable, untrustworthy nation currently on the in existence. And they love America. Ask Maxine or Nancy.

Can’t wait til Tuesday. I’m always excited to hear what the New York Times thinks. Right now I have to go get ready to hopefully watch the Denver Broncos do Trump-like things to the Dallas Cowboys.

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