interesting read

[LeonOfTheDead]

notice how i said the UN wont protect israel (or palestine for that matter). which means i was saying that the UN isn't protecting either of them i was bleating about the UN failing in its job to protect both countries.

You essentially make my point for me and probably clearer than I did. the UN has all these resolutions that countries just IGNORE. The fact that all a country has to do is ignore a UN resolution and nothing happens to them and they can go on and do whatever it wants speaks volumes about the UN's relevancy.

it kind of reminds me of a line andrew jackson once said. it basically went like this "the supreme court has made a decision...now lets watch them try to enforce it"...jackson then went on to continue with his forced removal of Indians. the UN is essentially like the supreme court in this situation, it tells people to do something but refuses to enforce its decisions.

refuse, or can't?

[Matra et Alpine]

ahem ... the UN makes lots of resolutions that ISRAEL has ignored and continues to ignore and the US uses it's veto more than anyone else when the UN tries to get tough !!

And the UN isn't an aggresive force, it's a peace-KEEPING force ( unliek the US/UK attempts in Iraq ) ... and so if either party wants to be bolshie, then the UN has no remit.

I really do wish America hadn't destroyed the UN repoutation by bad PR and twisting the truth of cases .... eg how often the UN "failed" and how many times because the UN mandate was weakened to appease the veto owners ( one in particular ). Neo cons did what they needed to weaken any alternative world power than the one they'd liek to build ! Far too much democracy in the UN structure

[roosterjuicer]

And the UN isn't an aggresive force, it's a peace-KEEPING force ( unliek the US/UK attempts in Iraq ) ... and so if either party wants to be bolshie, then the UN has no remit.
)

if it truly is meant to "keep peace" what is the point of it? you dont need any kind of force if there is already peace. me and my neighbor get along fine...we dont need a cop there to make sure we keep being peaceful. but if we hate eachother and start getting our dogs to crap on eachothers lawns and key eachothers cars, then we need a cop to come and regulate our behavior. same thing with the UN.

the UN is brought in in situations where peace needs to be made. it was brought in pretty effectively for the korean war, and in desert storm. both of which it made peace because there was to peace to be kept...then, once peace is made, then it can be kept.

[Matra et Alpine]

The UN won't go in to an active battle field. They negotiate a peace-of-sorts and then put things in place to maintain it.

Otherwise, it woudl risk being worse than the evils it was set up to avert !!!