US quietly maneuvers to cut UN dues

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
Who is 'we'? The United States? None of the links had anything to do with the United States.

You think the US wouldn't have gotten involved? We get involved in everything.

originally posted by: Aazadan
You think the US wouldn't have gotten involved? We get involved in everything.

I do not do hypotheticals and if we wanted to get involved some bonehead organization like the United Nations is not going to be much of an issue to circumvent.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
I do not do hypotheticals and if we wanted to get involved some bonehead organization like the United Nations is not going to be much of an issue to circumvent.

If a conflict is prevented, there's nothing to get involved in. Like I said, showing where the UN has been beneficial is like proving a negative. However, the statistics suggest that it has been helping because global conflict is declining, and if we use my metric of one conflict per century as the break even point we're not exactly setting a very high bar for success to stay in.

a reply to: Aazadan

I would not attribute the decline in global conflict to the United Nations either solely or as a major factor. I think it is more a desire by Western nations to avoid armed conflict where necessary. There is plenty of armed conflict in developing nations which are also members of the United Nations.

If there was an intent of destroying the credibility of the UN and UN Security Council... Yesterday, the sanction guys might have just done it ... inadvertently!

a reply to: stumason

Your sense of history is just plane wrong. First without US troops North Africa would have been lost. Without taking north Africa the invasion of Italy wouldn't have occurred. This means Italian forces could have been used to stop the Russian advance. Though I agree eventually the soviets would have made it to Berlin and even furyher to the shores of France.

Without US help and supplies to the Soviets and the UK this war would have easily continued on in to the 50s. End result the UK would have been sitting across from a Europe run by Stalin. This is why Churchill made the decision to try to get the US to join them against Germany.

Remember in June of 1940 the British got their butt handed to them and was busy evacuating from Europe. They left over 40000 vehicles for Hitler's armies. A huge hit that the brutish didn't have the capacity to replace. This is where lend lease came in without it good likely hood the UK would have had to go into hiding remember they were being bombarded nightly by German bombers. Their army was defeated and the airforce was barely hanging on. If Hitler bombed the airfields instead of cities he would have won easily. To this day it's considered a mistake but many believe he didn't want to destroy the British.

Without US help the British would have lost everything. Unable to protect their colonies and barely holding on to Britain. The Entry of the US granted Churchill the ability to fight back. I'm really glad you believe the British would have done fine with out US assistance but reality says the British Empire was done. The Germans could have continued bombing factories destroying manufacturing in Britain. North Africa losses would have lead to Germany breaking in to the middle east and getting their oil reserves. I'll grant you one concession I don't think Hitler would have ever taken the UK however I have no doubt Stalin would have.

Now the UN it was started by the allied forces. "Declaration by United Nations" was drafted by President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins, while meeting at the White House, 29 December 1941. The security Council was originally known as the four policeman. They were the countries,United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China. The main reason for setting this up was to prevent another world war. It was decided if military intervention could prevent another Hitler there should be a body to coordinate that effort.