It is true that the UN is not what we had hoped for and it has not solved many great problems of the world. It would be a mistake, however, for the U.S. to abandon its leading role in this institution. While one may think that the UN gives a voice for the poor countries, in reality it benefits the superpowers much more than the third world countries. The UN was never meant to be a democratic institution. It was created by the big powers to justify what they are doing and stop other countries from getting what the big powers don't want them to have. This is why there is veto power for the 5 permanent members of the security council. So while there is a lot of anti-American rhetorics in the UN, everybody still has to listen to the U.S. Nothing important gets done without the approval of the U.S. So even if all the Arab countries voted to send UN troops against Israel, it would never happen. On the other hand when we have no energy to do the right thing like intervening in Africa, we can claim that the UN is there already. Of course, the UN can't do a very good job because the major powers would never let the UN have a strong military.

When we are doing the right thing like going to Korea, going to Kuwait or chasing al Qaeda in Afghanistan the UN supported us. When most of the world disagree with us going to Iraq, obviously we would not get support from any international organization. Even NATO, which consists of our allies only, did not give us much support. If we had stayed longer in Afghanistan instead, I am sure that the UN troops would have relieved our troops there by now. It is not surprising that with so many Muslim countries in the world vs one Jewish state, that the UN is hostile to Israel. But all those resolutions are meaningless because the U.S. can veto them or just ignore them. By the way, it was the UN that gave the right of Israel to exist by dividing the land of Palestine after WWII when the British were too chicken to fulfill their promise to the Jews in the Balfour Declaration. And while UN troops may not keep Israel safe from Hezbollah, would you rather see American troops in Lebanon instead?

The UN exists basically for the great powers to present their cases to all the nations. I think in most cases we have come out ahead of China and Russia, earning more respect than them. But when we give false intelligence to justify war and then go ahead when most of the world disagree, we do seem arrogant to the world community and lose respect. Even though the UN gives a forum to crazy people like Chavez, his speech would have no impact of how the world view us. It is our actions that would have an impact. It we kick the UN out of New York, I am sure Bejing would want to host the UN. That would be disastrous for the U.S. and the rest of the world. The UN may not be a great success, but we can't let it become the League of Nations. Afterall, with the UN we have not had WWIII yet.