Peter Daou, of the Daou Report and formerly of the Kerry Campaign, is also administering the UN Foundation's new blog, The UN Dispatch. The UN Foundation exists to promote peace, prosperity and justice, and therefore clearly stands for everything the right wing hates. You can see that by the way the have gone after
The UN Dispatch - which is connected with the
UN Foundation, not the UN itself.
It isn't strange that the UN Dispatch has gotten more attention from the right than the left, just not the good kind it. If there is anything the right wing can agree on, it is that other countries shouldn't be run by foreigners. But you know the freep, their aim is poor and the have gone after Peter Daou because he worked for the Kerry campaign. And yes, the Coulter v2.0 is involved in a big way. She doesn't like people from other countries either obviously.
[Disclaimer: The UN Dispatch has posted my piece on Lebanon. ]
The UN is an institution which was born of the terrible conflict of the Second World War, on one had it looked back on the failures of the League of Nations - an attempt to form a world body to promote peace, and create "collective security".
One the most important backers of the UN was Winston Churchill, who suggested that the UN have its own military force, and through out his career urged that questions be settled through international bodies, first the League and then the UN. To Churchill collective security was a principle most likely to promote the liberties and freedoms of all nations, because they could oppose a dominating power, without becoming militarized themselves.
The UN Foundation is the result of Ted Turner, whose 1 Billion dollar gift "in support of UN causes" forms its basis. For those that follow dangers to the environment, improving Tsunami relief and combatting anti-semitism, it has become an indespensible news source, and source of comfort. At a time when the Democratic Party can only oppose and propose while the Republican Party is indisposed because it is busy looting the Social Security Fund and creating virtual debt prison, it is important to realize that the important work of making the world better does go on, and is going on.
But I am sure everyone reading knows the importance of the UN and its activities - the World Health Organization alone is a worthy cause - while the Republicans claim to have defeated the Soviet Union, the WHO really did defeat small pox - a disease which had killed as many as 300,000,000 people. I am sure that they know that despite set backs and problems at the UN itself, that the world body has done more good for more people than almost any political party or any other cause we could fight for. And it has done much of its best work unheralded, because that work is done among the most impoverished and dispossessed. Among the people for whom the only products of the global economy they know are guns, bullets and AIDS.
As a result, the UN receives little praise for its most important efforts - since they happen far away from any internet connection - and a great deal of censure, some of it for problems which would be all in a 2am sessions work for Tom Delay's crew in the House of Representatives.
As a result I am entering a plea for bloggers to add the UN Dispatch to their blog roll. First because the UN needs it, second because the UN Foundation needs it and third because Peter Daou - who has helped many, many, many people in the blogsphere, needs it.
But most of all, because we need it. In these times, when the world is hovering on the edge of a series of global crisis points, crisis points which could tear apart the world order that we, in the US, are the beneficiaries of, the UN is one of the few institutions that we can turn to to make progress on our issues: a decent life for all people. Without something to believe in - and I admit the UN's imperfections and problems - there is nothing to work for. Without an organization which can serve as the focus of activity, there is no activity.
But the UN has only as much political cover as we can give it. The United States is the single most important nation in the United Nations, and its grasp is largely determined by how much reach we give it. Without a noisy pro-internationalist, pro-UN lobby, the battle field will be left to the gaggle of crank head porn monkeys that stuff the ranks of the freep and serve as the shock troops of the reactionary movement. You know, the one that hates the UN and therefore promotes recession, war and injustice.