Refusal to Pay U.N. Dues

Re “U.S. Owes U.N. Money, and It’s Time to Pay Up,” Commentary, Aug. 27: I’m not a big fan of the United Nations. I like monarchy even less. Exactly when did the U.S. presidency become a monarchy? We’ve watched a 30-day “working vacation” similar to King George III’s retreat to the Highlands for shooting, golf and house parties. We’ve seen the pope photo-op as President Bush agonized over stem cell research. That’s a domestic issue, and most don’t place much weight on what the pope or Bush thinks.

When the Senate votes 99-0 to pay some arrears to the U.N., that’s startling. Bush ignores the outcome. Sad that there are not more newspapers saying the obvious: We degraded our system to the point where one person is held up as an all-knowing father and spiritual leader.

Tom Paine pointed out that monarchs are notorious for being distant from the affairs of the real world. Like any coddled offspring, they may exhibit unwanted genes and come to see themselves as sages, thanks to being surrounded by “yes” men. In 1776 most Americans came to hate George III. Unless he changes his behavior, George II will face the same fate.

David Dietrich

Temecula

*

Derek Chollet and Robert Orr abide by Vladimir I. Lenin’s edict that we will pay for the shovels to dig our own graves. To hell with the U.N. It is nothing more than a neo-communist organization with designs on totalitarian world power, the complete decimation of Western democracy and free enterprise and the abolition of sovereign states everywhere.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission is an international tribunal with arbitrary power to usurp all laws of once-sovereign states. Why would we want to pay into such a dastardly organization?

Tom Briggs

Bakersfield

*

I think Chollet and Orr got it all wrong! Bush does not want the U.S. involved in the U.N. He’s stuck with it, but he’s going to make it as hard as he can for the U.N. to continue to function. This sly old fox is going to undermine years of productive work with the rest of the world due to his myopia.

The only area outside of the United States that Bush considers of import is Mexico. He and President Vicente Fox make a great pair. Neither one has any idea of what’s happening in the rest of the world.

Michael J. Kane

Palm Desert

*

Chollet and Orr exaggerate the “diplomatic and political disaster” for President Bush visiting the U.N. this month without paying our U.N. dues. It may be an embarrassment but not a disaster. The real disasters are coming in the form of unmanaged global problems as a result of inherent U.N. weaknesses and underfunding. The global spread of infectious diseases, international crime, small weapons, weapons of mass destruction, pollution, refugees or economic instability are all increasingly putting the health and prosperity of Americans at serious risk. Failure to pay our dues is just an embarrassment. It’s the consequences that will be disastrous.

Chuck Woolery

Issues Advocacy Director

World Federalist Assn.

Washington