Libya and the UN

In the aftermath of World War II, the nations of the world viewed the carnage and said something along the lines of "never again!". As a result, the nations of the world agreed to work together to prevent any aggressive nations of the future from jeopardizing world peace. The forum for making these agreements was an organization named the United Nations. Unfortunately, the end of the WWII hot war was followed by a new "cold war" between the eastern bloc of nations and the western bloc. Those nations who were supposed to unite to preserve the peace could not agree themselves. The Soviet Union, as a permanent member of the U.N.'s Security Council, tended to veto the western bloc's proposals and the western nations tended to veto Soviet Union proposals. The United Nations was therefore seen to be ineffective and, in time, became almost irrelevant.

Then, in the early 1990's, the Soviet Union collapsed, the eastern bloc disintegrated and the cold war ended. Although the eastern nations in the Security Council, China and Russia, don't always see eye-to-eye with the western nations, the extreme hostilities of the cold war are no longer present. As a result, the U.N. may now be able to serve the purpose for which it was intended, but the major nations of the world must want to use it for that purpose. This requires the leadership of the United States to take the position that we are only one of many nations of the world and will work as a team with the others.

For the past several years, the United States has been dominated by the right-wing neo-con philosophy: that we are the sole remaining super power of the world and can shape the world as we see fit. The disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan have proven that the role of the world's lone super power acting as the world's policeman, is a very expensive one, and a role that the U.S. taxpayer should not have to finance. Today, the Obama administration is very reluctant to take unilateral action in Libya, as well it should be. This time, a nation in turmoil should be addressed by the U.N. as a whole and any military expenses be shared by all the nations of the world: Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, the Arab nations, and everyone else that is a member of the United Nations. Is this the moment in time that the "vision" of a world united to ensure peace comes true?