USELESS NATIONS

Why do we bother with the UN? And why do the Democrats insist that if we'd just let the UN handle everything, it'll all work out in the end? A new UN report concludes that, basically, the UN hasn't been effective in dealing with al Qaeda:

The report comes as Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz, who heads the council committee supervising the sanctions, was preparing to lead a mission later Monday to visit Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other nations.

The panel concluded that many nations are not taking the steps needed to crack down on terror groups and called on the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution that would compel nations to comply.

"The risk of al-Qaeda acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction... continues to grow," it said.

"Without a much tougher and more comprehensive resolution... little or no progress will be achieved with regard to the sanctions regime imposed on Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, their associates and associated entities."

Yeah, pass a new resolution. That'll teach 'em! Those terrorists will be quaking in their boots.

A modest suggestion: The Democrats use the UN to absolve themselves of responsibility. They can play peacenik on the one hand to their base by calling for an end to strictly US operations, but then to the rest of us they can point to the UN and say that it should be used to handle everything. Terrorism is, after all, a global problem, they'll say, so why not let the global legislature handle it? Of course, there's a giant problem with that thinking: There's no way to insure that member states will take effective action. The entire civilized world, and much of the rest of the world, agrees that al Qaeda is a problem, yet according to the UN few nations actually put any mustard into their drives to kill the beast. Many of them just don't want to put themselves in al Qaeda's crosshairs by siding publicly with us. As for the rest, they, too, pass off responsibility to the UN. The UN's existence is quite convenient for any state actor that wants to look tough while doing nothing. They can just demand in local speeches that the UN do this or that, then quietly scuttle any real UN action at the next meeting. Then there are the dictatorships and tyrannies that actually support terrorism, yet sit in good stead with the UN anyway. If responsible UN members want anything effective done about terrorism, a good place to start would be putting hard raps on other member states that support terrorism, even kicking out the worst offenders like Iran.

But they'll never do that; it would require real action. And the UN is useless for that.