The United Nations, beyond parody

Over the years, critics of the United Nations have been able to attack and ridicule that organization over the membership and leadership of various human rights organizations it sponsors. The best example is probably Iran’s membership on U.N. committees that oversee the protection of women’s rights and global human rights.

Now, we have an even more egregious case. Syria has taken up the presidency of the United Nations-backed Conference on Disarmament.

Robert Woods, the U.S. ambassador to the Conference, condemned the move, calling it “one of the darkest days” in the forum’s history. If there have been other days comparably dark, perhaps the Conference should disband.

Woods declared that Syria “has neither the credibility nor moral authority to preside over the [Conference].” That’s an understatement. Syria has flagrantly and repeatedly violated what passes as the Conference’s signature achievement, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention banning the production, stockpiling, or use of chemical weapons.

Even after agreeing to surrender its stocks of chemical agents used in the production of sarin gas and other chemical weapons, under a deal brokered by Russia, Syria continued to launch deadly chemical weapons attacks.

That’s Syria idea of disarmament.

The New York Times suggests that “a presidency [of the disarmament agency] occupied by a government that has used chemical weapons against civilians is. . .a blow to the group’s public image.” I guess.

Syria’s presidency tells us plenty about the United Nations and its offshoots. The U.N. is a farce. Currently, its only salutary purpose is to provide a forum for Nikki Haley to lecture the parasites who assemble at Turtle Bay. In most administrations, the U.N. does not even serve this kind of purpose.

We are able to negate most of the harm the U.N. would like to inflict on us, and the world generally, through the veto and/or by simply ignoring it. Thus, President Trump has bigger fish to fry. But it would be nice if he got around to directing his wrath at the United Nations.

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