🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug10.215329.700@ncar.ucar.edu> gary@colossus.cgd.ucar.edu (Gary Strand) writes:
>  Puhleeze. The UN has hardly been the plaything of the US. Do you recall all
>  those wonderful votes by the so-called Non-Aligned Nations that were cur-
>  iously pro-USSR? Now, with the SU gone, the UN will start acting like a
>  civilized body.
>
>  Wait, don't tell me, you're in favor of World Government. Bzzznt. Join the
>  decade, "Frank". The '60s *ARE OVER*.



In terms of recent history, the US has pulled off more vetoes of General
Assembly positions and Security Council decisions than any other state.
Look at the votes regarding Israel, in particular.
That does not mean that my sympathies are with those states that ran with
the USSR in their day. But remember that the Security Council was made
up of the 5 largest world powers (victors of WW2), and not the so-called non-
aligned world, except where China fit into that category. China tended
to vote in the most opportunist fashion anyway and I would hardly suggest
that its recent votes were more pro-USSR than pro-US. Quite the contrary.

But if the UN is to be a "civilized body", then perhaps it should first
be democratic, in terms of national representation (if not population
representation). How can one state on the Security Council over-rule
the views of 150+ in the General Assembly and the SC still be civilized? 

I'm not of the 60s era, actually. I've always been a little more
level-headed than that. But I do insist on democracy at the UN and have
seen very little of it. Do you fear abolishing the veto? 

My view on world government is to start with democratization of world 
political bodies. And then we'll see what happens from there.


Frank.