The US should co-opt the UN. The membership rules need throwing out and all governments that want to be recognised know have a responsibility to attend. This means that Taiwan, China and Tibet must attend. It means Palestine must attend. It means Afghanistan must attend. UN membership must become a responsbility, not a privilege.

Now, with that out of the way, the UN can behave like it really is all countries of the world, in attendance if not in unity. Now Palestine has a right to have its opinions heard and a right to vote on issues. Now Afghanistan has a responsibility to participate in world affairs. Now countries that are victims of massive terrorist activities can tell, in a neutral forum, offending countries and countries harbouring offenders, just what it meant to suffer such an attack.

Of course, things must be altered so that countries that ignore the UN are disadvantaged. Publically. "We have a motion accusing country X of harbouring terrorists attacking country Y. What does country X say? Oh, they're not here, well, absence is implicit guilt. Country X must now prove otherwise."

Wade.

Namely, how to turn the responsibility of a UN seat into something truly effective. I should have checked to see if Palestine was already in or not. :-)

But I still think Taiwan should have a seat, though, regardless of what China thinks.

Wade.