by
Forerunner, "WorldWatch," August 2003

The United Nations

Contrary to popular opinion, the United Nations is not the knight in shining armor it pretends to be. According to a review by Steve Farrell of Inside the United Nations: A Critical Look at the UN by Steve Bonta, it was founded on the Utopian belief that a sovereign human world government could usher in a millennium of peace and freedom. The UN began with a semi-secret meeting between officials from Britain, the Roosevelt administration, and representatives of the Stalinist regime, while Congress and the media were excluded.

The UN was never intended to be a peace organization, though. Constitutional authority J. Reuben Clark, Jr. observed at the time of the drafting of the Charter: "The Charter is a war document not a peace document. . . . [It] makes us a party to every international dispute arising anywhere in the world." He predicted the UN "[will] not prevent future wars, [but make] it practically certain that we shall have future wars." It would do something else as well: "[A]s to such wars, it takes from us the power to declare them, to choose the side on which we shall fight, to determine what forces and military equipment we shall use in the war, and to control and command our sons who do the fighting." In other words, the real purpose of the UN was to exploit incessant, orchestrated cries to "keep the peace," to "save the environment," to "free the indigenous peoples," and to "feed the poor" in order to erode national sovereignty and impose global government over a disarmed world.

Several points in the UN Charter outline the infrastructure this global government rests on:

1) There is no true representation at the UN; all the officials are appointed, not elected.

2) There is no separation of powers, or checks and balances; all power, legislative, executive, and even judicial, resides in a worldwide Security Council of 15 individuals (five of whom possess absolute veto power).

3) There is no limited government; the Charter outlines all of its powers in sweeping, vague, open-ended language.

4) There are no God-given inalienable rights; every human right is subject to revocation when exercised inconsistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

Global Religion

UPI reports that at the next meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations in September, President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines will present a formal proposal for the establishment of an Interreligious Council at the world body. It would be an institutional part of the United Nations, with status like that of the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council or the Trusteeship Council.

The speaker of the Philippines House of Representatives, Jose de Venecia, has waged a campaign for such a religious infusion into the work of the United Nations. "We in the Philippines feel that President Bush should try and avert the confrontation with the Muslim world that seems to threaten. And while the really grievous need is for a global Christian-Muslim dialog, the effort must also encompass Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, and Jews, heads of churches, temples, synagogues and mosques, political leaders as well as representatives of global civil society."

The proposal for an Interreligious Council to become a formal part of the U.N. structure is ambitious and new, and de Venecia has put his energies behind the task of winning political support through his connections with "Christian Democrat" parties around the world—particularly in Europe.

U.S. Plan to "Own" Space

The U.S. Air Force Space Command's Strategic Master Plan (SMP) is a clear statement of the U.S.'s intention to dominate the world by turning space into the crucial battlefield of the 21st century, Scotland's Sunday Herald reports. The document details how Space Command is developing, as its primary goal, new weapons, warheads, and spacecraft to allow the U.S. to hit any target on earth within seconds. The use of "space power" would also let the U.S. deploy military might instantaneously across the face of the earth and completely "bypass adversary defenses."

However, in order to "fully exploit and control space," Space Command must "negate" the ability of foreign powers to develop their own space capabilities. The SMP reveals U.S. fears of advances in space technology among other nations—including its European allies. "Space capabilities are proliferating internationally," it says, "a trend that can reduce the advantages we currently enjoy." It specifically names the European Galileo satellite system.

The rush to militarize space will likely see domestic laws and foreign agreements torn up. As the document warns: "To fully develop and exploit [space] . . . some U.S. policies and international treaties may need to be reviewed and modified." The conclusion of the SMP report leaves no doubt of how important these plans are to the U.S. military and government: "Expanding the role of space in future conflicts . . . produces a fully integrated air and space force that is persuasive in peace, decisive in war, and pre-eminent in any form of conflict."