Speech #910292923

Two major shortcomings of the Organization seem to have eroded much of its public support in the United States: first. the failure of its members to make it the paramount means for maintaining international peace and security as was intended in the Charter and second. its misuse as both an unwieldly and Ineffectivw debating society and a propaganda platform. I continue to read from the report: Still. for all its achievements the UN has fallen short of the worlds hopes. In the face of towering international problems of security. poverty. overpopulation. refugees. human rights. and environmental degradation. it would be foolhardy to gloss over the deepseated weaknesses of the United Nations. Nor should we encourage unrealistic expectations that any conceivable international institution could provide instant solutions to problems of the magnitude and complexity of those we now face. Some of the difficulties of the Organization clearly stem from obsolescence: the United Nations today functions as a very different institution from that envisaged at San Francisco in 1945.