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Chavez’s rant demonstrates U.N. inadequacies By Michael C. Guilmette Jr. Originally published on Sept. 21, 2006, in the Niles Daily Star. Gracing the podium at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday was none other than Hugo Chavez, the punk leader of Venezuela. I must say, it takes a lot of guts for a thug like Chavez to come to our shores, hide behind his diplomatic credentials, and boldly declare that the U.S. empire, as he likes to calls us, will soon fall.
Fortunately, Chavez is a weak leader who can barely control his own population. Already ousted from office once in 2002 in a short-lived coup, he appears to be fomenting discontent against the United States as a means of distracting his subjects and the world from his ineptitude. Also, with Cuba’s Fidel Castro finally on the way out, he may be hoping to set himself up as the next Caribbean strongman. Chavez’s speech to the U.N. came a day after Iran’s installed president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again tried to tell the world body that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and Iranian nuclear program was “transparent [and] peaceful.” This from the man who regularly threatens Israel with annihilation, denies the Holocaust happened and predicts the Shiite version of the Apocalypse will occur sometime in the next two years. After seeing both these supposed leaders in front of the General Assembly, one question soon came to mind: Who let all this riff-raff into the room? Seeing would-be dictators and terrorist supporters being given the same consideration and respect as the leader of the free world is revolting and absurd, and it shows, above all else, the United Nations is a broken organization. Chavez was correct when he said the U.N. is in need of reform. However, it’s unlikely he would be in favor of the reforms the world body actually needs. For starters, people like Chavez, Ahmadinejad and other illegitimate rulers do not deserve a seat at the table. Only true democracies should speak for the people of the world, not the wretched hive of scum and villainy that currently occupies valuable New York City real estate. The United Nations needs to have standards for admittance, much in the way the United States set forth standards for new states to be added to the Union in the Northwest Ordinance. Furthermore, and more importantly, the U.N. needs to have a mechanism in place to remove thugs and dictators from power. Allowing Saddam Hussein to thumb his nose at 17 U.N. resolutions for 12 years revealed the body to have no teeth, and it required the United States to finally topple the dictator at the cost of 2,600 American lives and thousands more Iraqi lives — a cost many still argue was too high. The current United Nations is flailing about much like the Continental Congress did under the Articles of Confederation — as a powerless debate society that had little influence over its member states. Richard Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., made waves by demanding reforms, but they have not gone far enough. The United States needs to step up and propose a fundamental change for the organization, akin to our Constitutional Convention of 1787. Our constitution heralded in rule of the people at the time there was still a Holy Roman Empire and absolute rulers, and 200 years later, democracy has flourished. If we created a United Nations modeled on the United States, we could see the dawn of a 1,000-year reign of peace. • Guilmette is managing editor of the Niles Daily Star. He may be contacted at mguilmette@leaderpub.com. |
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Copyright © 2006, Michael C. Guilmette Jr. |
It is also ironic Chavez would call President Bush “el diablo” and claim the president was “talking as if he were the owner of the world.” Chavez, who has suggested he should remain in charge of his South American country for the next 25 years, would happily take up the mantle of ownership of the planet if he were given the chance.
