Demagogue

Through the years, conservative attacks against the United Nations have been relentless -- sometimes deserved, but usually irrational or overblown. They began in the 1950's and 60's when the John Birchers bought billboards and printed bumper stickers that read: "Get US Out of United Nations."

Just recently, conservative columnist Mona Charen complained that "the United Nations is a collection of nations each pursuing its own interests ..."

Pundits on the Right frequently raise the specter of a UN-ordained, global government that doesn't respect the interests of the U.S. Now it surprises or bothers them that nations at the UN wish to pursue those interests? Or is it only okay for the U.S. to pursue its own interests?

Charen and her fellow conservatives have trashed the UN as a "gigantic bureaucracy" ... "awash in waste." But before conservatives continue blasting how the UN spends its money, they might want to compare costs a little -- UN peacekeeping operations versus the Iraq war appropriations that conservatives in Congress strongly supported. From a recent Harper's Index:

Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway : $3,870,000,000

Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000

I'll concede this is not a clean, apples-to-apples comparison, but it's interesting nonetheless.