The UN: Irredeemably Irrelevant and insignificant?

The current conflict between the Lebanon based Hezbollah terrorist group and the State of Israel is a by-product of a corrupt United Nations. The UN has failed over the past 6 years to demand that the Lebanese government fulfill it's obligations under UN resolution 1559, which called for the Lebanese army to deploy its forces in Southern Lebanon. The UN Unifil forces in Southern Lebanon- numbering 6,000 at its height and only 2,000 today - have clearly observed Hezbollah's illegal buildup of arms and construction of hardened border defenses, some within yards of the UN compounds. The Unifil forces in Lebanon also watched helplessly while Hezbollah terrorists crossed into Israel in order to instigate cross border skirmishes that ended up culminating in the current conflict.

On Wednesday, August 26th, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map, which is in direct violation of the Charter of the United Nations, specifically (but not limited to) article 4/1: " Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations." The UN's response to Iran's open threats of a fellow member of the UN, as well as Iran's complicity in the Hezbollah/Israel conflict is to ignore Iran and focus on Israel's use of force to defend itself. It's one thing to have a border dispute or even a military altercation with a fellow UN member. It's altogether another story when a member of the UN calls for the annihilation of another member state.

Those who espouse extremist Islamic fascism make no bones about their jihadist goal of creating a global Islamic Caliphate to rule the world, much like Hitler's dreams of a purely Aryan world with Germany at the helm. These Islamic threats, however, are falling on deaf ears, despite the mountains of evidence literally strewn across New York, Bali, Madrid, Moscow, Beirut, Tel Aviv, London - and dozens of other places where Islamic fascists have committed terrorist atrocities. The only explanation being that it is human nature to ignore threats as long as one isn't directly affected, then to appease when affected - but unwilling to defend one's rights, and eventually capitulate when one finds that appeasement is not sufficient.

The UN has a constructive role to play on the world stage, but in its present form, it is not only worthless, it is dangerous and/or deadly to those who hold stock in its ability to protect those who view UN resolutions as vehicles to promote stability and change in areas of conflict. What can the UN do to put it on the road to legitimacy? First of all, the Security Council (and possibly the General Assembly) should give Iran a short deadline to rescind its death threat against Israel, or be expelled as a member of the UN. Secondly, it should demand, under the threat of UN force, that Iran not only stop supplying weapons to Hezbollah, but should also immediately suspend Iranian nuclear activities with verifiable audits of compliance. If the UN refuses to take a stand at such a critical time in its short life, then one can only presume that the UN will continue to be an institution drowning in it's own irrelevance and insignificance.