Does the UN serve any useful purpose?

THE EDITOR: The Govern-ment of Trinidad and Tobago is right in condemning the attack on Iraq by the Americans and their satellites.

The fact that this attack was not sanctioned by the UN could make it the most unpopular war at the beginning of the 21st century. There is no doubt that Iraqi resistance is no match against American military might backed by the British and other satellites. But does the hurried defeat of Iraq in order to dethrone Saddam Hussein ensure lasting peace in that area? This is the question that has to be considered. The defeat of Iraq which could be a swift one, could hardly be used by the Americans and their satellites to justify the means. The fact is they have set a dangerous precedent by flouting the UN programme in finding a solution to the impasse. Mr Bush must realise that to every unpopular action there is a reaction. And the reaction generated could be multifaceted in areas like worldwide suicide bombing, the invasion of Taiwan by China, the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, the invasion by Russia of one of the neighbouring countries that once comprised the former Soviet Union.

There is the possibility of these events occurring because of the flouting of the UN and its authority by the Americans and their satellites in their quest to paralise Iraq. In the face of recent events, does the UN serve any useful purpose? The UN might as well go the way of the old League of Nations that was installed in 1920 after the First World War, of which Mr David Lloyd George a former Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916 to 1922, said, “The League of Nations is stricken with palsy; its voice is feeble”. Now that the UN is rendered “feeble” by American military hegemony, we can only hope that world peace is realised when Iraq is conquered, but of which many people are dubious.

DA COSTA MC DONALD
Pt Fortin