Reply #6: Muted sound and tepid fury ... [View All]

[Mechatanketra]

... signifying less than nothing.

What we have here is comparable to a Kitty Genovese case writ on the international scale, only instead of merely huddling in one's apartment while the crime takes place, you wander out into the halls to offer your considered opinions on the aesthetic shortcomings of the butchering.

The elephant in the room here is that America's invasion of Iraq is a case of mass killing that governments -- embodied in the UN itself -- "have proved powerless or unwilling to prevent". And that fact underscores the biggest need for reform in the UN: the Allied nations never gave a thought to a world in which they had become the kind of threat they just defeated. Rather than adding permanent members, the world would be better served to revoke the veto powers of the existing Big 5 (of course, on a pragmatic level, I realize this would just mean that America, China, and Russia would quit outright -- but at least they'd be open about their opposition to the UN's purposes instead of pretending to lead the cause.)