The UN: Life in a Glass House

If anyone ever wondered why many Americans have such disdain for the UN, it need only look at stories like this one -- "UN Human Rights Experts Chastise U.S."

Ready for the first one?

Member Hipolito Solari Yrigoyen, an Argentine lawyer and human rights activist, said he worried about U.S. efforts to deal with illegal migrants from Mexico.

Hundreds of National Guard troops have been deployed along the border in an effort to stop illegal immigration.

"My major concern ... is the level of militarization on the border with Mexico," he said. "Militarization of the border creates a conflict zone."

So the problem is that the US is trying to control its borders -- a key indicia of sovereignty. Doing so with force (on the US' part) is verboten, even though this story from last Thursday concerns Mexicans firing on the US, not the other way around (and it's hardly the first time). The critical Argentine lawyer might be better advised to worry about the plight of illegals in Argentina -- a much uglier proposition than illegals face here -- or, perhaps, Mexico's treatment of illegals. Suffice it to say there's no free emergency room health care or education there.

Here's more of the same:

Panel member Sir Nigel Rodley, a British law professor, criticized the alleged U.S. practice of holding detainees in the war on terror incommunicado for long periods.

Abdelfattah Amor, a senior Tunisian law professor, noted allegations of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. detention center for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A British law professor doesn't approve of the way America is treating enemy combatants? No doubt a lot of the people whom he believes shouldn't be incommunicado would love to plan another 7/7. But it's always easier to toss brickbats at the U.S. than to take a tough line with the people who want to kill you . . .

As for the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, when anyone in the US military is convicted of wrongdoing, they're punished -- as were the soldiers charged with wrongful conduct at Abu Ghraib. It's a habit that the UN should learn to emulate. And perhaps the Tunisian lawyer should find a worthier subject for his concern, because Guantanamo has been found to have better accommodations than Belgian prisons, which may explain the Guantanamo 13. By the way, as the Tunisian law professor should be aware, the U.S. government only locks up suspected killers, not people who simply exercise free speech rights (luckily for him, not so lucky for one of his fellow countrymen).

Finally, there's this gem:

Other questions from the panel concerned racial discrimination, the rights of native Americans and the treatment of African-Americans in the Gulf Coast area before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Name me another country that has spent as much time and money to try to rectify racial injustices, whether through affirmative action or a host of other measures. Name me another country with as much color-blind opportunity as the United States.

This kind of busy-body moral obtuseness is the reason that no one takes the United Nations seriously when it talks about "human rights." It's worried about enemy combatants at Guantanamo and the victims of Katrina (who are receving $10 billion in direct government aid) when women in China are being forced to have abortions (and those who expose the violent, ugly system are dragged into court) -- and oh, yes, while there are credible charges outstanding that the UN's own "peacekeepers" have sexually exploited of women and girls in Liberia, the Congo, Kosovo and Bosnia.

How typical.