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Originally Posted by Sadistic-Savior";p="
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Surely if one approves of international law then the UN is the only game in town.
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um...says who?
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I`m no legal expert, so please educate me, but I would think that IF you agree with the idea of international law then you must have some sort of legislator to determine those laws and some sort of adjudicator to determine whether those laws have been broken. The UN performs those functions (in a haphazard, imperfect way).
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Originally Posted by Sadistic-Savior";p="
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So whilst the UN is flawed I don`t see that as a reason to reject it. After all our democratic institutions (on both sides of the Atlantic) have flaws but no-one suggests we should just trash them and walk away
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Many member nations of the UN are not democratic. So the comparison is not valid. |
I wasn`t making a demo/non-demo comparison. What I was saying is that perfect solutions are hard to find. Our own democratic institutions (of which we are so proud) are not perfect. We understand that and work within their limitations or seek to improve them. We don`t just point at their deficiencies and declare the whole system should be torn down.
I have no problems at all with the ideals or principles of the UN. It`s the implementation and enacting of those ideals that so needs improving.
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Originally Posted by Sadistic-Savior";p="
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The USA has been legitimizing oppressive governments since forever... with or without the UN's help. Perhaps you should hold your own country to the same standard before asking others.
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We cant do both at once? |
No.
How could the US argue that dictator should stand down
because he is a dictator whilst at the same time supporting dictators elsewhere? It would be/is hypocritical.
Another problem that I see with your strong stand on non-democracies is that it makes no allowance for those countries that are in a transitional stage like (hopefully) Pakistan. If the world were to polarise between democratic countries and non-demo then these transitional countries would, by default, fall into the non-demo camp and democratic change would thence be stiffled. There is no objection to democratic countries making additional treaties betwixt themselves but to isolate non-democracies from the UN would be counter productive from a democratic point of view.