Wednesday, October 21, 2020

They look for lost glory where there is none

 Here is a chain of logical links that needs to be fed to every American with their mothers' milk: When you say the United Nations (UN), you mean all of humanity. When you denigrate the UN, you denigrate humanity. When you denigrate the UN because it does not protect human rights, you denigrate humanity for not protecting itself. But protecting itself from who? From those, like the Americans who denigrate it.

 

And that's an invitation for humanity to spit in America's face, the self-designated slanderer of humanity, falsely pretending to protect human rights from humanity itself.

 

But why would the Americans want to place themselves in a situation as horrendous as this? Looking for an answer to this question, we delve into the article that came under the title: “China's accession to human rights body shows how much of a disgrace the UN really is,” written by Zachary Faria, and published on October 14, 2020 in The Washington Examiner.

 

If you think that the title of that article shows how the writer was incensed––calling humanity a disgrace the way that he did––when he sat to write the article, wait till you see what he says in the first paragraph. Actually, the paragraph is made of two sentences that go like this: “In case it hasn't been clear for years now, the United Nations wanted to be sure everyone knows that it is a catastrophic joke. So it just placed China on the Human Rights Council.” Now, Zachary Faria calls humanity a catastrophic joke.

 

But why would he say that? Well, he is not shy about telling why he would. Here is his explanation: “The US pays dues to the UN to the tune of $674 million in 2019. In return, the UN dedicates its time and resources to attacking Israel while turning a blind eye to the abuses of countries like China, Russia, and Iran.” In other words, Faria is saying that the UN is so incorruptible, America could not buy it for $674 million and have it protect the war criminal that is Israel in lieu of what it's doing now, which is to work with the nations that matter, and whose overriding interest is to improve the human condition.

 

In short and as a bottom line, what is it that Zachary Faria wants America to do? Well, here is the closing argument in which he tells what he wants: “The UN is not going to change no matter how much the US tries to change it from the inside. Joe Biden's promise to rejoin the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council will make taxpayers fund a bureaucracy that opposes American values. It is past time for the US to focus on other global efforts to promote American interests”.

 

But what exactly are American interests in the world, and how to serve them? Whereas Zachary Faria, did not spell out what that is, Ilan Berman made an attempt at explaining how to approach the matter. To that end, he wrote: “Charting China's plummeting popularity around the world,” an article that also came under the subtitle: “Can Washington parlay increasing negative views of China into a competitive strategy?” The article was published on October 13, 2020 in The Washington Times.

 

As can be seen from the title and subtitle of the article, Ilan Berman is hinting that because America may have a hard time walking the walk, it should play the role of the opportunist and take advantage of the fact that China has flinched –– and talk the talk selling itself to a world that has had it below China for a time now. Here is how Berman blared what he thinks is the good news: “There's no denying that Beijing has an image problem. Traditional views of China as a constructive global actor have plummeted around the world, while suspicions about China's strategic intentions are on the rise”.

 

Even with a development that injected a shot in America's arm, Ilan Berman still believes that America's success will not come as easily as a cakewalk. And so, after explaining the situation as he sees it, laying out the statistics to prove every point he made, he offered the following conclusion:

 

“That debunks the notion that Beijing enjoys the upper hand in its unfolding 'great power competition' with the West. The question is whether Washington can parlay the negative views of China that predominate in a growing number of capitals into a competitive strategy by which to contain Beijing on the world stage. On that score, at least, the jury is still out”.

 

Whether it is Zachary Faria or Ilan Berman, the two men do not seem to accept the painful thought that the glory days of America being the sole superpower on the planet, are gone forever. But they also know that this is the inescapable reality that America may never be able to turn around.

 

Nevertheless, Faria chose to deal with his pain by throwing insults at the UN, using it as proxy for a humanity that made the current condition possible. As to Berman, he chose to hang his hopes on America being able to rally other nations, and together get ahead of China while at the same time, seeing China damage its own standing in the world.

 

There can only be one thing to say to all that: Someday, those two dudes will wake up and realize that this can be anything but glorious.