Alternatives to the U.N.

Although news about the oil-for-food scandal continues to get buried in the newspapers, don't let that fool you. We still need a credible organization that can facilitate multi-lateral action on critical world issues. On top of the biggest financial scandal in history, in which world government officials and the UN itself profited directly from monies that were supposed to go to the Iraqi people for food and medicine, the UN elects Sudan to another 3-year term on the UN Human Rights Commission, despite the ethnic cleansing going on there.

While the U.S. has lost a good deal of credibility in the wake of torture allegations, Sudan's re-election is a much larger blow to the credibility of the UN. I say let's get rid of this bogus organization, stop funding it, and replace it with an alternative. There's been quite a bit reported lately about Bush's interest in creating an organization comprising the world's democracies. Here's a December editorial that sums it up nicely. Not that I believe that democracy is necessarily the common factor under which a new multi-national organization needs to unite, but it's the best idea I've seen yet.