The problem that Kofi Annan cited exists because of the inability or unwillingness of the United Nations to unite and take concerted action against aggressor states posing threats to world peace. It is this failure on the part of the United Nations that has called into question the structure of collective action forged from the ashes of World War II. The UN failure is the reason why the United States put together the Coalition of the Willing and led it in the invasion of Iraq. The U.S.A., with the support and cooperation of its Coalition partners, is doing the job the United Nations had refused to do through twelve years of "resolutions" that Iraq's Saddam Hussein ignored.

The essential failure of the United Nations is its inability to resist the many evils extant in the world. It depends on member nations to collectively do the job, but only the United States has shown the necessary initiative, leadership, will, determination, and military strength to advance and protect peace. Notwithstanding the Secretary-General's recom- mendations for a radical restructuring of the international body, the answer to the prob- lem cited is not a United Nations with its own military, its own court system, or its own taxation powers. The answer is not a global government that supercedes the right of na- tions to defend themselves.

Kofi Annan's plea was that nations feeling themselves uniquely vulnerable rely upon collective action by the United Nations to effectively address their concerns and that the U.S.A. and the Coalition consider the possible longterm consequences of their policy of unilateral action. His plea, however, ignored the fact that the United States had gone to the UN Security Council and begged it to authorize some action other than its fruitless "inspections." Bear in mind that inspectors are supposed to inspect, not be some kind of international detectives.

Kofi Annan cited all the usual UN concerns about poverty, the spread of infectious dis- eases, "climate change and environmental degradation", among others, but only the most naïve person continues to believe the UN is the solution.

Its environmental programs are the problem, since it has banned DDT and other pesti- cides needed to control the vectors of disease. It opposes the building of dams to gener- ate much-needed hydro-electricity in Third World nations. It opposes the use of natural resources that contribute to the prosperity of its member nations. The climate change that exists has existed for 5.4 billion years as part of the natural cycle of change, not as the result of industrialization. Poverty is the failure to advance the spread of capitalism and free trade worldwide.

Instead, non-governmental organizations, using the UN, have turned it into an instrument to achieve a global government in which they, not freely elected representatives world- wide, would determine every aspect of our lives. The UN even has a Commission on Global Governance and has published its game plan for world government. It's not even a secret.

The United Nations came into being because, as World War II wound down, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was determined to replace the failed League of Nations with a new international body that would insure a third World War would not occur. History, since then, has made it abundantly clear that the UN has not been able to end conflicts be- tween and within nations, whether it was the North Korean attack on South Korea or the massacre of thousands that occurred in Rwanda. It was unable to respond to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

The answer is not to deprive nation-states of their sovereignty to resolve or respond to threats, but to eliminate yet another failed international institution that, more often than not, has proven a roadblock to action. That was President Bush's dilemma with Afghan- istan and Iraq, and he solved it by creating an international coalition to alter the future of the festering Middle East, providing the platform for constitutional democracy for its oppressed people, and the promise of the prosperity that had been blocked by various Middle Eastern despots.

Global solidarity and collective security are the noble goals Kofi Annan cited, but the reality is that they are achieved only when one or more of the Great Powers demon- strates the courage and the will to alter a future that promises only increased terrorism and the oppression of millions of the world's citizens. All the pretty words will not change that reality.

The United Nations was the creation of the United States. The UN, however, has drifted into the same sad state as its predecessor, the League of Nations. The UN is no longer needed. It failed to effectively perform its key function--to maintain international peace and security. And, today, there are sufficient regional organizations and mutual defense treaties and organizations to insure the enforcement of peace.

Moreover, the continued existence of the United Nations is much more of a liability than an asset. It complicates and makes more difficult pursuit by the U.S.A. of its own nation- al interests and the enforcement of world peace by the U.S.A. and its allies.

With the close of World War III, i.e., the Cold War, we live in a changed world. The So- viet Union is no more. Its threat has been replaced by a threat that comes, not from one or more nation-states, but from religious fanaticism and international terrorism. As President Bush has warned, those nations that harbor and support this threat must ex- pect to pay the price for it. And he has patiently put together an international coalition to end that threat, just as the allies of World War II employed military force to put an end to the threat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during the first half of the last centu- ry, and just as we and our Cold War allies would have eventually employed force of arms to eliminate the Soviet Communist threat, if the USSR had not imploded during the last decade of the last century.

The change that is required is not going to happen so long as the United Nations pre- tends to be the answer. That's not going to happen so long as the United Nations plots to become a global government. That's not going to happen so long as the United Nations remains the captive of repressive Third World nations and even some Great Powers like Red China. That's not going to happen so long as the United Nations seeks to become the final arbiter of every aspect of our lives.

We Americans have the oldest, continuous, living Constitution to insure tat our country, the United States of America, remains the most powerful economic engine on the face of the Earth and the greatest voice for constitutional democracy and the dignity of man. Those who hate the United States, both from within and without our borders, know we are the last, best hope of a better world for everyone on Earth.

Kofi Annan is right. The United Nations has reached a fork in the road, but it has long since chosen the path to its own dissolution. The evidence that the UN has chosen the path of self-destruction is its continued failure to fulfill the lofty dreams of a half-century ago.

Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States, both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.

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