John Smart: McCain really wants to supplant U.N.

John Smart  —  6/15/2008 7:20 am

Sen. John McCain has called for the establishment of a "League of Democracies" to operate on the world stage in addition to the United Nations.

In McCain's words: "This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations. It would complement them. But it would be the one organization where the world's democracies could come together to discuss problems and solutions on the basis of shared principles and a common vision of the future. If I am elected president, I will call a summit of the world's democracies in my first year to seek the views of my democratic counterparts and begin exploring the practical steps necessary to realize this vision."

He added that his new league "could act where the U.N. fails to act."

He goes on to explain why it's only logical that the United States, as the foremost democracy in the world, should lead this effort -- it's obviously our God-given mandate, after all.

As for me, I believe that the United Nations, made up of 192 member states, including those we may not care much for, is the body that can best deal with international affairs. For the most part, it has succeeded. Oh, not always. There have been questionable actions as well as outright failures, but there have been far more successes.

It has sometimes been messy. Democracy is often messy, and the U.N. is a democratic institution: Every nation, large or small, rich or poor, formal democracy or otherwise, has a vote in the General Assembly.

I am worried about McCain's assurances that his new baby "would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations." Frankly, I don't believe him. I think he fully intends to supplant the U.N. with his own hand-picked league.

What would be the criteria that President John McCain would use to select those "democratic counterparts" to join his exclusive club? I assume that the Brits would be invited, and the French, probably the Japanese and the Italians. And how about the Brazilians or the Indians? Or the Zambians or the Indonesians? Or the Russians or the Chinese? They certainly don't all have democracies that would fit our description, but could we ignore China?

Another problem is that this league would become a focal point for everyone in this country who hates and/or distrusts the United Nations. It's those people whom McCain is addressing. It's always difficult to get the U.S. to pay its fair share to keep the U.N. functioning -- just think how much more so it would be if there were another world body supported by a Republican president.

This sort of thinking led to McCain's "no" vote, siding with President Bush, on a Senate resolution regarding the U.N.'s international agreement to ban the use of cluster bombs, a diabolical weapon responsible for killing and maiming innocent people in Lebanon and Iraq, among other places. The agreement was just signed in Dublin by 111 nations. Nations that refused to sign included Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and the United States. Sen. Barack Obama voted for the ban.

No, John McCain's League of Democracies and his narrow global vision worry me. It's time to move on into the 21st century following the truly American goals and ideals that we profess to believe in.

I am confident that a President Barack Obama would be a world leader, not a world bully, and would support and help strengthen the United Nations. A friend of mine who is working in Africa wrote to me that by electing a president whose father was born in Kenya, we would do more for our standing in the world than almost anything else we could do. I think that's worth a try.

John Smart of Park Falls was a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan in 1995-1998. He was appointed by Gov. Jim Doyle to the Wisconsin Governor's Commission on the United Nations in 2004 and is a member of the U.N. Association of the USA.

John Smart  —  6/15/2008 7:20 am