Circus of the Crackpots

Growing up, the United Nations meant one thing to me: the annual sixth-grade class trip. As an adult, it has become another venue for entertainment if you can't afford or acquire tickets to a Broadway matinee or Ringling Bros. & Barnum Bailey's Circus at the Garden.

In theory, this silver-and-blue skyscraper along Manhattan's First Avenue is where nations come to seek common ground in an effort to improve the lives of human beings across all cultures and races. Great concept, but, in reality, the United Nations (now there is a misnomer if there ever was one) has proven itself to be, at best, reckless, and if anything, another money pit for the American taxpayer.

In his best-selling book, "Surrender Is Not an Option," former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton imparts a comprehensive examination of the sweeping corruption inside the "world body," while at the same time suggesting some well-reasoned solutions. Remember the infamous Iraqi Oil-for-Food program during the reign of Saddam Hussein? If there is one thing that all U.N. resolutions have in common, it's that they lack any true resolve. There isn't enough Viagra the world over to cure the U.N.'s impotency problem. I wonder if anyone in our present federal government has even glanced at the cover of Bolton's book, let alone read it.

In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Barack Obama said, "those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months." The United States of America was established in 1776. In the first half of the last century, and on two separate occasions, the United States saved Europe from tyranny. Through the Marshall Plan, we then rebuilt the continent, including Japan; then, in the Cold War, went on to defeat Soviet communism. Obama also spoke of "the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world." And to think, we still have liberals that insist on arguing that George W. Bush was arrogant. Obama's speech was branded "naïve," and even "post-American."

Despite how pained President Obama's speech was, the U.N. circus was primed. Libya's longtime terrorist-in-chief, Moammar Gadhafi, was up and failed to disappoint as he was dressed like he just came from a boardwalk audition at a Coney Island sideshow. Failing to make use of a teleprompter or any notes, his diatribe lasted longer than any Major League Baseball game. He incoherently babbled about everything from sympathizing with the Taliban to the Kennedy assassination, and the effects of jet lag on this 67-year-old crackpot. Naturally, he insulted the United States and Israel, laying blame on both for all his country's ills, real or imagined. That front page photo the following day in The Wall Street Journal captured his rambling to perfection as the president of the General Assembly, and a Libyan himself, Ali Treki, is seen holding his head in his hands during Gadhafi's overplayed harangue.

Certainly not to be outdone, in the second ring of this three-ring "Circus of the Crackpots" was Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who, if anything, resembles a Venezuelan Punchinello in high-definition. He must have been taking notes while Gadhafi spoke as he hit on the same familiar thesis, denouncing the United States while bringing up the Kennedy assassination, and pontificating on a weird affection for America's favorite conspiracy filmmaker, Oliver Stone.

It was reported that many diplomats left the assembly to free up some First Avenue parking spots as Iran's dubiously re-elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was next. Ahmadinejad brought his ranting lunatic routine to Manhattan for the second time, having done a dress rehearsal at Columbia University two years before. Relishing the world stage, he refuted that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. He followed up by dropping his international calling card of denying the Holocaust and Israel's "racist ambitions." Like Gadhafi and Chavez, he too blamed the United States as responsible for Iran's internal problems.

In regard to the "international community," the United Nations gives these global thugs the same deference as any U.S. president. It is this type of political relativism that is at the nucleus of the U.N.'s ineptitude.

After our U.N. visit, my class toured the N.Y.P.D. academy. They fingerprinted us and placed everyone in holding cells that in retrospect seemed like an unplanned precursor to the "Scared Straight" program. Such things work wonders with sixth-graders, but when juxtaposed to U.N. sanctions, such toothless policies have absolutely no bearing on terrorists, crackpots or dictators.

(Maresca, a local freelance writer, composes "Talking Points" for each Sunday edition.)