THE UNFIXABLE UN

IN "BLAZING SADDLES" probably the funniest movie ever made oneof the characters Mel Brooks plays is the sexually preoccupied andutterly corrupt Governor LePetomaine. In one scene, the governor,worried about a failing scam, shouts to his assembled cronies thatthey've got to find a way to save their phony-baloney jobs. Whichbrings us to Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN.

Scandal piles on top of scandal, minor officials resign,investigations drag on, and Annan is under personal attack forfailing to prevent the enormous corruption that's occurred on hiswatch. But Annan has nothing to fear. The widespread calls for UN"reform" all aim at changing small problems.

Not even its most diehard supporter Kofi Annan himself deniesthat the UN has enormous problems. Its bureaucracy, bloated andoverpaid, is not a source of solutions to the world's problems oreven the means by which solutions can be implemented. Its membership,with fewer than 50 democracies among its 191 members, is not capableof working in good faith toward solving the problems of our time.

Americans don't spend a lot of time thinking about the UN. It'ssomething we expect our elected leaders to do. When we do think aboutit, as the latest Rasmussen poll shows, only about 37 percent of ushave a positive opinion of the UN; 63 percent believe Kofi Annanshould resign; and among those who follow the news closely, 72percent believe Saddam Hussein used the UN Oil for Food program tobribe other nations to get their support in the UN.

If more people knew what the UN is doing to influence our livesand freedoms, the percentage of anti-UN feeling among Americans wouldhave been much higher.

It's important to understand what the UN means to us asindividuals.

The UN pokes its nose into anything and everything. Do you have afamily member in the armed forces? If so, you should be grateful thatPresident Bush "un-signed" the UN agreement creating theInternational Criminal Court. That court wants to take jurisdictionover every American soldier (and government officials) to subjectthem to war crimes trials in a highly politicized setting.

Do you use the Internet for your business or to get news andinformation? In November, the UN "World Summit on the InformationSociety" will meet to decide if the third world nations (most ofwhich want to deny freedom of the press and freedom of expression)will control the Internet.

Does your family own guns? If so, you should be worried about theUN's international gun control initiatives. Instead of trying tocontrol the smuggling of arms to terrorists, the UN wants to imposeEuropean-style gun controls on every nation that doesn't have them.Though no US president at least none we've seen so far would letit, the UN would impose taxes on air travel, international financialtransactions, and even pocket some of the money donated for tsunamirelief.

America has been the greatest financial supporter of the UN sinceits creation. We now send about $7 billion a year in dues andcontributions to many of its agencies. In return, we get the massivecorruption that pervades the UN system, endless anti-Americanism inthe General Assembly, and UN initiatives that infringe on ourpersonal freedoms, our ability to trade with other nations, and onour nation's sovereignty.

There is no way to fix the UN, because to do so would require thatthe votes of the despots and dictators be taken away and thedemocracies who are routinely outvoted and shouted down be the onlyvoting members. There's only one solution to the problems of the UN:America must leave and form a new organization of democracies to tryto deal with the problems we face together.