{"id":100965,"date":"2022-03-22T17:31:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T21:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=100965"},"modified":"2022-03-22T17:31:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T21:31:47","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-monday-march-21st-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=100965","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Monday, March 21st 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Monday, March 21st, 2022…but before we begin, a forward from the lovely Shannon exposes the complete paucity of Progressives’ promotion of mental illness as legitimate form of self-expression:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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If Will Thomas is a woman…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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…Michelle Obama is an unabashed supporter of truth, justice and the American way as set down in writing by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s the juice, in the form of a meme forwarded by Balls Cotton:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Here’s hoping The Left’s unabashed support of such an obvious exhibition of insanity…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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…marks the end of America’s tolerance of their deviant social engineering.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, Jim Geraghty accurately assesses how the…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ukraine Crisis Exposes the Impotence of International Bodies<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

In a Crisis, Big International Institutions Falter<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

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“Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, delivering a virtual address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, stated a hard truth plainly: \u201cThe wars of the past have prompted our predecessors to create institutions that should<\/em><\/span> protect us from war, but they, unfortunately, don\u2019t work<\/em><\/span>. We<\/em><\/span> see it.<\/span> You<\/em><\/span> see it. So we need new ones, new institutions, new alliances, and we offer them.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It feels like a long time ago, but it is easy to forget that less than a month ago<\/em><\/span>,\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine began as the United Nations Security Council met<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0to discuss and<\/em><\/span> denounce it. The security-council meeting was chaired by Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, because the month of February was Russia\u2019s turn in the rotation.<\/span> One by one, security-council ambassadors denounced the invasion<\/em><\/span> . . . and then nothing happened<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0This is how that meeting ended:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no purgatory for war criminals,\u201d [Ukraine\u2019s ambassador, Sergiy] Kyslytsya said. \u201cThey go straight to hell, ambassador.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After a bit of silence, Russia\u2019s ambassador responded calmly.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t being aggressive against the Ukrainian people, but against the junta in power in Kyiv,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

He then<\/span> announced the meeting adjourned<\/span>.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Think about it: The U.N. didn\u2019t even have a mechanism or the will<\/em><\/span> to decide that the Russian ambassador shouldn\u2019t be allowed to chair the emergency meeting about how to respond to Russia invading Ukraine.<\/span> The institution is so<\/em><\/span> obsessed with protocol and avoiding an accusation of being unfair that it shrugs helplessly<\/em><\/span> as the guy representing the invading country<\/em><\/span> declares the meeting over.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then on March 2, the U.N. overwhelmingly voted for a resolution demanding that Russia \u201cimmediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.\u201d<\/span> And again, nothing happened<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The United Nations doesn\u2019t have<\/em><\/span> the power to enact any economic sanctions on its own.<\/span> The U.N. doesn\u2019t have<\/em><\/span> an army capable of forcing Russia out of Ukraine. The U.N. has peacekeeping forces, but they are\u00a0frustratingly ineffective<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>,\u00a0infuriatingly corrupt<\/a><\/em><\/span>, and have a\u00a0jaw-droppingly horrific problem with the sexual abuse of the populations they\u2019re supposed to be protecting<\/a><\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2019, the American Foreign Service Association published an excerpt of the book,\u00a0Why Peacekeeping Fails<\/em>, by Dennis Jett, a former U.S. ambassador to Peru and Mozambique who also worked in U.S. embassies in Argentina, Israel, Malawi, and Liberia.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jett did not mince words<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span>:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The most recently launched peacekeeping missions will therefore fail, because U.N. peacekeeping has become a way for rich countries to send the soldiers of poor countries to deal with conflicts the rich countries do not care all that much about. The fundamental problem is that there is no peace to keep, and U.N. forces are incapable of imposing one because they are peacekeepers and <\/span><\/strong><\/em>not<\/span><\/strong><\/span> warfighters.<\/span> If the international community wants to try to impose a peace, it should send troops that are capable and willing to do that.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The United Nations is largely irrelevant<\/em><\/span> to the world\u2019s biggest problems.<\/span> When push comes to shove, it\u2019s an impotent debating society that\u00a0fails to pay its parking tickets<\/a><\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To give credit where it\u2019s due, international-relief agencies such as the\u00a0International Committee of the Red Cross,\u00a0Save the Children, and\u00a0the U.N. World Food Program, among many others, are responding quickly to help desperate refugees and victims in Ukraine. Maybe big international institutions can work when the task is straightforward and a matter of logistics: getting<\/em><\/span> aid to those who need<\/em><\/span> it.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But beyond that<\/em><\/span>, score one for the nationalists: When a really important task<\/em><\/span> needs to get done, it\u2019s usually a national government<\/span><\/em> that makes it happen. The sanctions that are devastating the Russian economy are being enacted by individual nations<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> Individual NATO countries<\/em><\/span> are shipping arms and supplies to the Ukrainians. Individual nations\u2019 police forces<\/em><\/span> are seizing those oligarchs\u2019 yachts.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile<\/em><\/span>, two years<\/em><\/span> after the Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt and turned everyone\u2019s lives upside down, the World Health Organization is\u00a0still begging the Chinese government to cooperate more in probes about how the pandemic began<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

The United Nations: Useless as the proverbial…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Since we’re on the subject of the utterly useless, the Journal<\/em> reports\u00a0Biden has warned China\u2019s Xi of “consequences” if Beijing supports Russia on Ukraine<\/em><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 We can only imagine the conversation went something like this:<\/strong><\/p>\n