Ryan ChartrandAfter reading Brian Eller’s column for quite some time, I finally found something we can both agree on in Wednesday’s “Time for America to pull out of United Nations”: The U.N. is far from a perfect institution and vast changes need to be made. But that’s where the similarities end.
If the U.S. were to withdraw from the U.N. and act without regard for international opinions, the U.S. could only be identified as a “rogue state” and the single greatest threat to world peace. The suggestion that “the U.S. should act with nations that have similar values” shows the very hubris for which America is so despised worldwide. If any other country were to try this little stunt, severe punishments would follow.
On the issue of human rights, I fail to see the moral high ground from which Eller claims the U.S. acts. A look at recent history reveals a bloody U.S. foreign policy: supporting Saddam Hussein while he gassed both Kurds and Iranians, Iraqi sanctions which resulted in the death of 500,000 children under the age of 5, supporting Suharto’s invasion of East Timor (200,000 killed), bombing of the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan (resulting in the deaths of many tens of thousands from preventable diseases), and supporting the contras in Nicaragua (50,000 killed), just to name a few. Before the U.S. can condemn and punish its foes for human rights abuses it must start by taking a long, hard look in the mirror.
Clayton Proto
Civil engineering freshman