OPINION: Shame On The UN

By Jeff Crouere

This week, world leaders will gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. As usual, the spotlight will be on some of the world’s biggest tyrants who will be given the key speaking positions.

Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will bring a contingent of 140 Islamic radicals to the Big Apple. Once again, Ahmadinejad will speak to the U.N. General Assembly and receive a warm reception from the vast majority of 193 delegates. In contrast, the Prime Minister of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, will receive another rude reception. Certainly, anti-Semitism is a key factor in this rough treatment, but it is also worthwhile to note that two-thirds of the U.N. delegates represent developing counties where democracy is a foreign concept. Sadly, tyrants, despots, radical clerics, and dictators are well represented among the U.N. General Assembly.

In previous years, terrorists like Yasser Arafat of the PLO and dictators such as Fidel Castro of Cuba and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya have been given starring roles at the United Nations. In a 2009 U.N. speech, Gaddafi rambled on for two hours about so-called enemies of his country. In fact, Libya’s biggest enemy has been Gaddafi, who has finally been removed from power. He is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The world would have been spared much misery if the minute Gaddafi set foot in New York he would have been arrested for his role in the bombing of Pan American flight 103 and the killing of 270 innocent people. Instead, Gaddafi was given a hero’s welcome at the U.N. and treated like some sort of Islamic rock star.

In 2009, a true tragedy occurred when Gaddafi was allowed to come to this country and spew his poison. This week, U.S. officials should not make the same mistake again. Ahmadinejad should be arrested and immediately delivered to the International Criminal Court for his long list of crimes.

Ahmadinejad has been advancing an illegal nuclear weapons program and lying to the world about his intentions. He has been lavishing funding worldwide on the main enemy of the United States, Al-Qaeda. In fact, according to Nathan Carlton of United Against a Nuclear Iran, Ahmadinejad’s regime is “the world largest state sponsor of terrorism.” There is clear evidence that Ahmadinejad is arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan with the latest weaponry, which is used to kill American soldiers.

Along with supporting international jihad which specializes in killing innocent civilians, Ahmadinejad brutally repressed a peaceful democratic uprising in his country in 2009. This brutality has not stopped and according to Amnesty International, the Iranian regime has executed an average of two people per day in the first half of 2011.

Ahmadinejad has blood on his hands, which is why no organization that purportedly pursues peaceful coexistence among nations should allow this tyrant a platform to emit his hatred toward the U.S. and Israel, or his anti-Semitic beliefs denying the existence of the Holocaust.

As we await another disgusting display at the United Nations, U.S. taxpayers should demand that Congress withdraw funding from this organization. Currently, The U.N. receives 22 percent of its regular budget and 27 percent of its peacekeeping operations from the United States taxpayers.  No other country contributes as much as the United States and some countries contribute as little as 0.001 percent of the budget. In addition, our country incurs significant costs in hosting the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

Facing a massive $1.4 trillion annual deficit and a national debt of $15 trillion, the United States can not afford to waste money on an organization that promotes anti-Semitic, anti-American dictators.

Along with de-funding the United Nations, we should also give the group a one-way ticket out of the country and let some other nation provide these tyrants a headquarters.

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Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.