United Nations

NEW YORK -- The most significant foreign-policy achievement of the Clinton administration may be unintentional. Judging by action and inaction over the past two years the United States seems determined to either destroy or replace the United Nations as the world's arbiter of war and peace.In one dangerous area after another in recent years, the United Nations has failed to end war, or make or bring or keep peace: in Bosnia, in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland, in Haiti, in Somalia, in Liberia, in Rwanda and a few other places the world would rather forget.

Less than 24 hours ago, an apparent act of terrorism marred this year's Boston Marathon. It's too early to know many of the details about this tragic event. Late last night, officials were reporting three deaths and well over 100 injuries; soon we will have a clearer sense of how many were killed and wounded. Their families, friends and co-workers will pay tribute to and then bury their loved ones. When they are ready, some of the wounded survivors and spectators will come forward to recount the horrors they experienced.

NEW YORK -- The war in Iraq has been a particularly painful event for the United Nations, whose prime objective for the more than half a century of its existence has been the avoidance of military confrontation. The bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August prompted Secretary-General Kofi Annan to withdraw all U.N. personnel working there and to declare he will not reopen it until their security from terrorist attacks can be effectively addressed. One of the organization's rising stars, Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of the U.N. mission in Baghdad, was killed in the bombing, which shattered the longtime assumption that the United Nations was accepted as a neutral force in world affairs.

Maryland's two senators should not vote for ratification of the international arms trade treaty recently adopted by the United Nations ("U.N. approves landmark global arms trade treaty," April 3). This U.N. power grab is not just aimed at gaining control over all the weapons in the world but also includes a proposal to tax the Internet, which would give the U.N. control of our freedom of speech. I urge Maryland's senators to reject such appeals. Our country is the United States, not the United Nations.

Gerald Lavin, a former United Nations officer, died Oct. 2 of complications after surgery at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Annapolis resident was 79. Born in Queens, N.Y., he graduated from Queens College and earned a master's degree from Hofstra University. Mr. Lavin taught school in New York City and then moved to Indonesia, where he taught the children whose parents worked at the Caltex oil company based there. Upon returning to the United States, he worked as a corporate media writer, producing copy for print and film.

London.THE ECONOMIST magazine ran an amusing piece last week suggesting that Margaret Thatcher run for president of the United States -- after all, two years ago she topped George Bush in a poll held on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. She'd certainly cut the budget deficit in no time at all.What The Economist didn't suggest is for her to be the next secretary general of the United Nations, a post soon to become vacant and one for which she is more than eligible.For some months now the talk on the East River has been that it must be a woman or an African -- the five secretary generals so far have all been male, three were European, one Asian and one Latin American.

WASHINGTON -- As the United Nations celebrates its 60th anniversary as a symbol of peace and a beacon of hope, we must offer a frank and critical assessment of its failure to deliver on the promise to halt global human rights abuses, improve economic and social development and significantly enhance world security. In all three categories, the United Nations has either ignored its charter mandate or has been so overwhelmed with bureaucracy, ineptitude, corruption and inefficiency that it could not carry out its mission.

UNITED NATIONS -- While the United Nations probably enjoy a higher profile today than at any time in its history, its most important peacemaking missions are bogged down or threatened with collapse in trouble spots as varied as Angola, El Salvador, the former Yugoslavia, and Cambodia, raising the possibility of a damaging reversal to its influence in the year ahead.Despite these setbacks, demand for the organization's services as peacekeeper, mediator, election monitor, and distributor of aid remains so strong that the secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, fears it may be unable to cope with the strains.

WASHINGTON -- Negotiators have completed a landmark agreement that would ban the production, use and stockpiling of chemical weapons and are preparing to submit it to the United Nations for endorsement, according to senior administration officials.Still, even with the expected agreement, significant obstacles remain before the treaty can fulfill its promise of ridding the world of poison gas.The treaty negotiations, which have plodded along with relatively little fanfare for more than 20 years, are expected to close tomorrow, when the 38-nation Committee on Disarmament meets in Geneva.

WASHINGTON -- Faced with mounting allied criticism and the threatened collapse of NATO, President Clinton yesterday agreed to send U.S. ground troops to Bosnia to aid the United Nations if it orders an evacuation of its peacekeepers.Republican critics of the administration's Bosnia policy demanded that congressional leaders be briefed on the number of troops that would be deployed, the prospects of resistance, the rules of engagement and the lines of command."Under no circumstances should any American forces be subject to United Nations decisions on their manner of operations, rules of engagement, or ability to defend themselves," said Sen. Bob Dole, who is in line to be the next Senate majority leader.

Whether Susan Rice jumped or was pushed from consideration to succeed retiring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her removal from the equation clears one bone of partisan contention from President Barack Obama's plate as he heads into his second term. The UN ambassador asserted that she withdrew her name to save her boss from "an enduring partisan battle" that would further distract him and the country from urgent national priorities, including job creation, deficit reduction, immigration reform and "protecting our national securitiy.

I read with interest Rabbi Chaim Landau's comment on the possibility that the United Nations could recognize a Palestinian state in September ("Mr. Obama, don't equate Israel with its enemies," May 27). In 1948, the state of Israel was created by the United Nations; Israel had not existed for 2,000 years prior to then. Yet although land was taken from the Palestinians to create Israel, the Palestinians have never been compensated for their loss, nor have they or their descendants been granted any right of return to their ancestral homeland.

Congress has sent the United Nations a long-overdue message: Don't expect America to bankroll your farce of a Human Rights Council. Last month, the Senate followed earlier House action and voted to withhold about $3 million from our annual U.N. "dues" payment. The move has nothing to do with economizing. It's a fraction of the more than $400 million we pour into U.N. headquarters every year as our portion of the U.N. regular budget. But it represents that share of our dues money that flows into the Human Rights Council's kitty each year.

UNITED NATIONS -- President Bush announced yesterday that he planned to tighten sanctions against the military government in Myanmar and deny visas to "those responsible for egregious human-rights violations." In a speech at the United Nations, Bush focused on human rights, outlining new U.S. efforts to force the military rulers to accede to the demands of the democracy movement in the Southeast Asian nation once known as Burma. Calling on the United Nations to honor its human-rights charter, Bush turned a spotlight on efforts to overcome dictatorships in Cuba, Zimbabwe and Sudan.

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned world leaders at a climate change summit yesterday that "the time for doubt has passed" and urged them to act quickly to save future generations from the devastating effects of global warming. "I am convinced that climate change and what we do about it, will define us, our era and, ultimately, the global legacy we leave for future generations," Ban told more than 80 national leaders in the General Assembly chamber. "We hold the future in our hands," he said.

WASHINGTON -- Dozens of world leaders are to gather at the United Nations today for a full agenda of talks on how to fight global warming, and President Bush is skipping all of the day's events but the dinner. His focus instead is on his own gathering of leaders in Washington later this week, a meeting with the same stated goal: a reduction in the emissions blamed for climate change, but a fundamentally different idea of how to achieve it. Bush's aides say that the parallel meeting does not compete against the United Nations' process - hijacking it, as his critics contend.

The recognition that the Vance-Owen plan for Bosnia is dead andthat that supposed "state" has been partitioned coincides with the second anniversary of the Croatian and Slovenian secessions from Yugoslavia that initiated the war.These two years have shown that the original policy of opposition to those secessions was correct. Overall, the population of what was Yugoslavia has been impoverished; and three million people have been driven from their homes while perhaps 150,000 have been killed.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - In what seems to have become a never-ending diplomatic two-step, the United Nations has revived the possibility of putting Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial. In February, it cut off five years of discussions with Cambodia, saying the government had displayed what it called a "lack of urgency" that had raised questions among diplomats here about whether it truly wanted to proceed with a trial. More than two decades after they were driven from power after causing the deaths of more than 1 million people in the late 1970s, it appeared that the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders had gotten off scot-free.

Threat is seen to U.S. sovereignty History tells us that we will be celebrating the 220th year our Constitution has existed. It is certainly a landmark for our republic when you consider the efforts made by different individuals and groups to ignore or disparage it. During the week of Sept. 17-23, Americans throughout the country will be celebrating this unique document, which with the Declaration of Independence, forms the basis for our government. It states that our rights do not come from governor, king or government, but from God and are inalienable, meaning that they cannot be removed by any ruler or any government.

The recent National Intelligence Estimate painted a troubling picture. While al-Qaida is resurgent, with an "undiminished" intent to attack the U.S. homeland, international counterterrorism cooperation is likely to wane as 9/11 grows more distant. Revitalizing the United Nations' counterterrorism role would be an important step to bolster the international effort against al-Qaida. The United Nations has demonstrated that it can play a significant counterterrorism role. Indeed, for the first few years after 9/11, it was at the center of the fight against terrorism.