Holding the UN Accountable
This bill:
"... is dated, tired and frankly unresponsive to the positive role being played by the UN." Unnamed Whitehouse source, Politico.
"[would] seriously undermine our international standing and dangerously weaken the UN as an instrument to advance US national security goals." State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
"[would] severely erode America's leadership role at the United Nations and undermine our nation's security." Executive Director Peter Yeo of the Washington-based Better World Initiative.
This must be some bill. Imagine the untutored effrontery of proposing a bill that would undermine the "positive role" of the UN and "weaken the UN".
The bill in question brashly proposes to end funding for Palestinian refugees and (gasp) limit use of U.S. funds to only purposes outlined by Congress. Even more outrageously, it withholds funding for the UN Human Rights Council until it stops hiring people under investigations for human rights abuses or are state sponsors of terrorism
This bill is, as one would expect, sponsored by a Republican -- the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. It is called the United Nations Transparency, Accountability and Reform Act.
And yes, Obama will veto it. His policy is to subsume US interests to UN interests in order to achieve world harmony.
This is foreign policy based on the fatal respect-reciprocity conceit: show respect and deference to others, even if it means curtailing one's own power and empowering one's antagonists, and they will respond in kind. Such is the enlightened path to peace and world harmony -- not to mention Dhimmitude.