UN should be consulted, not ignored, on Iraq war

After the end of the World War I, sixty nations got together and organized the League of Nations, with the essential purpose, first, to prevent future wars; second, promote international co-operation. The League was then seen as "the sounding board of the civilized world". US President Woodrow Wilson played a major role in its foundation, but he could not convince his own country to be part of the League. The League, however survived until it was replaced by the United Nations Organization on October 24, 1945.

Like its predecessor, the United Nations’ primary concern is the maintenance of the world peace. It was UN intervention that stopped the fighting in the Arab-Israeli border in 1949, the Korean war in 1953 and the Suez Canal dispute in 1956. UN restored order in Congo (Leopoldville) in 1960 and helped find a peaceful end to the crisis that arose when Russia established missile bases in Cuba and the US blockaded the shipment of arms to the island. Somehow, it could not stop the Vietnam war.

Now the United States has launched another war against a third-world nation and we find it strange indeed that the world organization tasked with securing peace in the world has been totally silent. Last Thursday, a newspaper carried this headline, US WARNS UN MEMBERS and the story was that the United States is asking the UN not to hold a special session of the UN General Assembly on the Iraq issue because any support for such a session will be viewed as "directed against the United States". We really hope that there is absolutely no truth to the report. The UN will be derelict in its duty if it does not call for a session of the UN General Assembly to discuss how peace can prevail in Iraq. The irony here is that the UN headquarters is right in New York and the United States supplies about a third of its budget.

The Iraq war is something that can spread worldwide. It could easily become the modern version of the old crusade. Already, the Iraqis view their war as a jihad or a holy war against non-Islamic invaders. All it takes now is to make this the official view of all the Muslim countries in the world, then, it will be the "coalition of the willing" against the Islamic world.

The most logical international organization that can prevent all this is the UN. Ambassador Raul Goco, former Philippine Jurist of the United International Law Commission, came out with a statement to the effect that the US and British attack on Iraq is so far the greatest tragedy in UN’s history. It has, Goco said, made the UN inutile. In short, the UN has become the biggest victim of the Iraq war.

Will the UN just die a natural death like its predecessor, the League of Nations, or will it hold a special session of its General Assembly to discuss the Iraq war?