http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/ckinca ... 8221.shtml


Dems Endorse Expansion Of U.N. Power
By Cliff Kincaid
August 22, 2008

Our media are running stories about the planks in the new 2008 Democratic Party platform but they've missed a big one - expansion of the power of the United Nations, and especially more U.S. involvement in U.N. authorized military operations.

In another bow to the world organization, the platform indirectly endorses Senator Barack Obama's controversial pro-U.N. Global Poverty Act. "It is time to make the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, America's goals as well," the document says. (web site) It leaves out the estimated cost - $845 billion over 13 years.

This plank is listed under the "Invest in Our Common Humanity" title of the platform. The word "invest" is as deceptive as the legislation. It means to spend taxpayer dollars.

While it may seem strange that the platform would not endorse the legislation by name, this reflects awareness of how controversial the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) (web site) and its federal commitment to the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals have become. Increased foreign aid spending is not popular with the hard-pressed American taxpayer. So the one piece of legislation actually introduced by Senator Barack Obama (which passed the House and Senator Joseph Biden's Foreign Relations committee by voice vote without hearings) is mentioned only indirectly.

A section titled, "Revitalize Global Institutions," is more direct. It declares the need for "stronger international institutions" on "issues from weapons proliferation to climate change." While admitting that the U.N. is in need of "reform," the organization is said to be "indispensable" and the U.S. must rededicate itself "to the organization and its mission." This inevitably means more money for the world body.

Even though the U.S. public school system is rotting from within because of unaccountability and incompetence, the platform calls for more spending on educational systems in other parts of the world. It urges a $2 billion Global Education Fund that will "bring the world together in eliminating the global education deficit with the goal of supporting a free, quality, basic education for every child in the world."

On another international matter, the Democrats declare that "We will repeal the global gag rule and reinstate funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)." This means that Americans will be called upon to spend more on international abortion "services" and population control. In this context, the platform urges support for "Health Infrastructure 2020," which is described as "a global effort to work with developing countries to invest in the full range of infrastructure needed to improve and protect both American and global health." No cost is put on this effort.

Similarly, we are not told about how much it will cost to launch the "collective action" needed to confront the "global challenge" of climate change. But we are told that it will require a "Global Energy Forum that will lay the foundation for the next generation of climate protocols." It declares the need for a "global response to climate change that includes binding and enforceable commitments to reducing emissions..." This means more U.N. treaties impinging on our freedom and sovereignty.

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