Pretty sure he meant *American *hillbilly dumbassery.
You do realise that other parts of the world sees the US the same way. From the actions of your military to basic stuff like how in London, the capital of one of your biggest allies, you won’t even pay your parking fines. The bill is now over six million pounds. A complete disrespect for the law in the UK and a disgrace.
[QUOTE=The BBC]
The US has long maintained that diplomatic immunity exempts it from paying the congestion charge.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve got the solution - just call the UN job creators. (They created my father’s job and lots of jobs in my neighborhood.) Even the furriners who come in spend money here - if not on parking or traffic tickets, at least on snails and other fancy furrin foods. And we all know job creators are good.
I love the ideals of the U.N. and the world is a better place for at least having someplace to talk about things first before shooting the hell out of something. The Cold War probably would not have ended so quietly otherwise.
That said, the U.N. has disappointed me repeatedly over the years.
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As mentioned, complete and utter incompetence at dealing with emerging atrocities like 1 Million dead in Rwanda, and in other regions failing to protect refugees with troops already on the ground.
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As mentioned, complete and utter corruption in the form of having a country where slavery is legal being on the human rights council. That had to be the biggest facepalm the organization has managed so far.
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The inconsistent behavior of the General Assembly towards the Middle East. I am trying to avoid going too political on this point (but we are talking about the U.N.). I know the whole region is FUBAR, but Israel does seem to get more than its fair share of flack. You’d think a country that had been attacked by all its neighbors, simultaneously, multiple times would get cut a little slack.
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Listening to tinpot dictators lecture the U.S. on anything makes me throw up in my mouth just a little.
I still hope the U.N. works out, but it’s hard to see how with its current structure. I can’t see China, the U.S., or Russia giving up the Permanent Council structure, and I’m not really sure I’d be willing to give the U.N. any more power than it has. What will be interesting is what happens if and when the balance of world power significantly changes so that the 5 Permanent Members are no longer relevant.
The US has a large influence on UN actions. This influence is too small for the comfort of Americans (who fund a substantial chunk of the UN, see the US as the world’s only hyperpower and anyway have come to expect an imperial presidency) and too large for other countries (who see the leaders being chosen, dumb ideas pushed through and the UN itself located in & acting on topics of interest to western world powers)
If an action has a strong likelihood of succeeding, the US simply ignores the UN, builds a coalition of the willing and invades/organize sanctions etc. The US gets the credit.
If it has a high probability of failure, the US takes it to the UN, so that the lead comes from there. The UN gets the blame.
Sure, there’s a lot of talk, but talk is cheap and as far as action goes, it tends to go the way that the US wants much more often than not.
In the case of the UN, many Americans seem to be unduly swayed by the talk, rather than the substance of power.
It’s a shame, because the US gets to amplify its power by giving up some power at the edges.
I figure that the way it is operated now, the UN is set up to fail.
The US is very big, and an ocean separates us from the “civilized” nations of the world, with the exception of Canada. (I’m deliberately excluding Mexico from this category; the cartel violence down there scared the hell out of me during the year-plus that my sister was living there).
We have a tendency to want to see to our own affairs. After achieving Manifest Destiny on the North American continent, we had an initially isolationist policy for both WW1 and WW2 until we were drawn into the conflicts. Then, the fear of the commies controlling the world led us into Korea and Vietnam.
The Soviet Union no longer exists, but it would take a rather naive person to say “we’re all friends now”. Russia and China, permanent members of the UN Security Council, routinely vote against American interests, so we go it alone with them. Hell: China’s probably been trying to help North Korea get the bomb. Is that batshit loony of them or what?
And don’t get me started on Saudi Arabia.
Basically, it comes from a not-entirely-unjustified belief that we can’t really trust anybody apart from our British and Canadian cousins. (I personally think we can trust France, too, but the virulent anti-French sentiment that took place during the War on Terror was very disheartening).
Aussies & New Zealand (Heinlein notwithstanding).
[quote=“Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor, post:87, topic:643106”]
Aussies & New Zealand (Heinlein notwithstanding).[/QUOTE
I stand corrected.