The United Nations: A Legacy of Failure

I've been reading a lot of glowing reports of late about the United Nations. Indeed one can hardly speak about politics or government without someone bringing up the United Nations as a possible solution to nearly every problem imaginable.

"Peace in middle east, well for that to happen we need to get the U. N. involved", one gentleman remarked to me the other day. I simply shook my head and endeavored to give my rather unenlightened colleague a little lesson in Middle East history.

While many would chose to blame the United States for most every problem facing the middle east, the truth is the vast majority of the problems in the Middle East have little to nothing to do with United States foreign policy.

The truth is that almost all of the turmoil in the Middle East today is a result of edicts handed down by the United Nations, and its predecessor the League of Nations. Iraq is a prime example.

The modern country of Iraq was actually part of the Ottoman Empire prior to Word War I. Since the Ottoman's had sided with Germany during the Great War, Britain invaded and captured Baghdad in 1917.

When the armistice was signed in 1918 Iraq stayed under the control of Great Britain, at least until the League of Nations became involved. The League Mandated that Iraq, as well as many other areas of the Middle East that were currently under the control of France and Great Britain eventually be returned to individual sovereignty.

When the League of Nations was disbanded and the United Nations rose to take its place, these territories all became known as "UN Trust Territories" and supposedly they were to remain under British and French rule until a stable government could be formed in each nation.