America's Leadership Role
Money talks, but it can't buy friends

The disastrous tsunami that hit south Asia in late December brought out the best and the worst in humankind. America did what it always does by immediately stepping forward with relief assistance for countries devastated by acts of nature.

The U.S. government extended prompt financial aid and sent Marines, helicopters, cargo planes, ships, and forensic experts. The federal government also urged America’s private citizens, corporations and charitable institutions to provide assistance and they did. The American Red Cross and other relief agencies experienced the biggest surge in donations since 9/11.

No sooner had President Bush announced America’s initial pledge, with assurances of more coming as soon as analysis determined what would be needed, than came a bellicose lecture by a UN official that “America is stingy” and “American citizens want higher taxes.”

This bureaucrat, while most certainly representing the belligerent sentiments of UN leadership, also failed to recognize that in 2004 alone (pre-tsunami), the U.S. government had already provided more than 40 percent of all world aid to other nations. And, that doesn’t even count aid provided by private American organizations and individuals that historically deliver aid in world emergencies.

In recent years the UN has become thoroughly discredited by its lethargic inefficiency and its documented corruption during the UN’s “Oil-for-Food” program in Iraq, corruption by UN officials and member countries. Facts already known demonstrate that the scandalized UN is now so compromised that it cannot be regarded as a credible institution.

Third World dictatorships, whose values and goals are opposite of those in democratic countries, now dominate the UN. Some of these dictators have a nasty habit of slaughtering their own populations. Nevertheless, UN leadership placed these very members in charge of areas such as its Human Rights Commission. Something is wrong here and the stench of such behavior is becoming intolerable.

Urgent reform is past due at the UN. Its leadership is responsible for corruption and must be accountable for its abject failures – failure to stem genocide in Bosnia, failure to intervene while Sudan’s government slaughters its own citizens, failure to stop genocide in Rwanda and Somalia, failure to stop the UN’s own peacekeepers in the Congo from raping and pillaging, and failure to address the Saddam Hussein regime’s torture and mass murder of Iraqis. After all, UN intervention in Iraq would have halted the gravy train delivering riches to UN officials and some member countries illegally doing business with the Iraqi regime.

America is a major importer of goods, many of which are also available from U.S. manufacturers.

Let’s not buy from countries that routinely insult and condemn our government and people. American citizens and their dollars have power – power that must not aggrandize those wishing America ill. Effective employment of those dollars, if withheld from nations hostile to America’s well being, could precipitate new-found accountability from those nations. After all, fine wines, cheeses and cars are made in America as well as France and Germany. Consumers should thoughtfully spend their dollars at home.

Capitalism trumps socialism every time. Look around the world and see which economic system better destroys poverty. Be proud of who we are and stand up for our country.

Pat Freibert is a former Kentucky state representative from Lexington.
editorial@lanereport.com

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