United Nations fails in goal for equality and prevent war, and needs change
The United Nations continues a flawed system set up in 1945 to allow five major powers, China, Russia, France, Britain and the United States to control the world. It's time that changes
By Ray Hanania
FREE/World Politics UN/Saturday Oct. 5, 2024
The United Nations was established In October 1945 following a two-month long planning meeting hosted by the United States in San Francisco that was attended by representatives of 50 nations, all American allies who survived on U.S. financial gratuity and military support.
A Charter was embraced that that declared in its preamble, many goals, the most important being to prevent war, defend human rights, create conditions to respect the International Rule of Law, to love together in peace, and, among many other utopian vows, to reaffirm "equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small."
The plan was driven by American officials who wanted to ensure that they continue to lead the world and prevent the revival of fascist powers, creating its headquarters in New York City.
Yet in its 79-year history, in part because of the influence of the United States, the United Nations has failed in almost every goal, most importantly to prevent war ad to ensure every nation is treated equally.
The fault line began when America and its World War II Allied partners decided to give themselves special powers, creating an international "caste system" in which they would always be more important than any of the other members nations.
They created the Security Council, which has become the symbol of hypocrisy and selfish political agendas that has fueled rather than prevent conflict.
The Security Council, which consists of five "permanent members including the United States, UK, Soviet Union, France and China," and guest members, also created a false sense of "equality," with the five nations acting as Gods and the rest of the world as their political pawns in a powerless General Assembly.
The Security Council can pass resolutions that are mandatory to be enforced by all UN members, while the General Assembly can issue resolutions of empty, unenforceable words.
Instead of preventing war, the United Nations sustains war by virtue of the selfish interests of each of the members of the Security Council, who are able to block implementation of any resolution with a single Veto.
As a consequence of this flawed system that divides the world into five Gods on the Security Council who oversee a General Assembly that includes, today, 188 additional lower-class nations, divisions flourish and conflict and wars erupt so often, you can't count them any more.
Those conflicts include the Palestine war in 1947, the Korean War in 1950, the Vietnam War in 1955, the American led war in Cuba in 1961, and many dozens of wars across the globe.
Most of the conflicts were decided by political paralysis in the Security Council, and the anger of nations spilled out into the General Assembly members who were heavily influenced by the largesse of the wealthy United States which created a system of "bribery," giving millions of dollars in grants and support to the poorer, needy nations, in exchange for their allegiance.
In fact, the first conflict the UN faced continues until this day. The Palestine War has been ongoing on and off for the past 75 years where the total number of people who have been forced from their homes, injured or killed shadows the losses suffered during the Jewish Holocaust.
What's the solution? Ironically the answer lies in the political election system of America, which today wields huge influence to help its allies and hinders those it disagrees with. It's called the Electoral College Vote (ECV) which apportions power based on population.
In the ECV system, each of America's 50 states has an equal voice based on their population and they can partner with other states to create a majority ECV, which is used to elect a president every four years.
That same system would change the balance of power in a new United Nations which embraces true equality. Every nation would get an ECV determined by their population total.
The ECV United Nations would change the UN and the top 10 countries with the largest votes would be those with the largest populations. They are China, India, America, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico.
An ECV could be given based on every 1 million population, although to ensure some level of true equality, no large populated nation would have more than 150 votes, and no small populated nation would have less than 2 votes.
In the Middle East, Egypt has the largest population (113 ECV) followed by Iraq (89), Saudi Arabia (34), Yemen (29), Syria (17), Jordan (10), UAE (9), Israel (9), Lebanon (6), Oman (5), Kuwait (4), Qatar (2) and Bahrain (1).
Under the ECV system, every nation would have the ability to win the support of other nations through persuasion when voting on mandatorily enforced resolutions. Enforceable resolutions would be adopted by a simple majority of ECV.
Resolutions could be vetoed but only if the veto has the backing of at least 2/3rd of the UN's entire ECV.
In that system, for the first time in their existence since WWII, the Arab World would have the ability, through alliances, to direct their own future and prevent or end wars.
Nations that violate the new UN Charter, would face international sanctions, real consequences instead of the empty words thrown at endless conflicts by the UN General Assembly or blocked by the impetuousness of one nation's veto on the Security Council.
This is the only system that gives smaller nations the opportunity to build support in order to overcome the power of the larger nations, or the paralysis of a the often divided Security Council that exists today.
Today, UN General Assembly Resolutions may have moral power, but they have no enforceable power.
As a consequence, today, the UN Security Council members with Veto power control the world and independent nations are subjugated by a system rigged by the post WWII powers to preserve their powers over the rest of the world.
It's about time that the rest of the world, 79 years later, stand up for their rights creating a system of true equality and one that can punish those nations that continue to pursue and fuel war.