Re: [POLITICS] Thank God for the death of the UN (Article)

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sat Mar 22 2003 - 04:37:47 MST

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    Brett Paatsch wrote:
    > The following link is to an article in the Guardian.
    >
    > "THANK GOD FOR THE DEATH OF THE UN
    >
    > Its abject failure gave us only anarchy. The world needs order"
    >
    > http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,918812,00.html
    >
    > "Saddam Hussein's reign of terror is about to end. He will go quickly,
    > but not alone: in a parting irony, he will take the UN down with him.
    > Well, not the whole UN. The "good works" part will survive, the
    > low-risk peacekeeping bureaucracies will remain, the chatterbox on
    > the Hudson will continue to bleat. What will die is the fantasy of the
    > UN as the foundation of a new world order. As we sift the debris, it
    > will be important to preserve, the better to understand, the intellectual
    > wreckage of the liberal conceit of safety through international law
    > administered by international institutions." .... etc

    http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/3/22/latest/10929USandB&sec=latest

    "After weeks of delay, Turkey relented and agreed to let combat aircraft
    fly over its territory. At the same time, however, Turkey sent 1,000
    troops into northern Iraq, and the government said it would send more to
    prevent Iraqi Kurds from creating an independent state. The United States
    strongly opposes any unilateral move by Turkey into northern Iraq."

    The first results of the breakdown of international law are already
    reverberating. If the US can invade Iraq any time it wants, with or
    without UN permission, why shouldn't Turkey do the same? For that matter,
    why shouldn't Turkey seize as many Iraqi oilfields as it can, and operate
    them for the benefit of the Iraqis under its area of control?

    -- 
    Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
    Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
    


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