US to leave the UN?

[nicky g]

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Yet the U.N. has failed to prevent every major slaughter or genocide-type of mass killing (that I can think of) in the 20th century.

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Second time I've seen this "logic" in this thread. Of course the United Nations failed to prevent the ones that actually happened--if it prevented any, they didn't happen.

Sorry for being snippy, and obviously the rest of your post is well thought out. This is a minor quibble, but for some reason it really bugged me.

Maybe because it's the flip side of the Bush administration bragging about all the terrorist attacks that didn't happen. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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I'm curious as to how many mass killings would have happened on average in a given 50 year time period, and then see if the number is more or less than that for the last 50 years. For them to have prevented any at all, the world must have been a much bloodier place in the past than I thought.

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The UN wasn't founded following an average 50 year period. It was founded after a short period in which two world wars occurred that between them killed over 50 million people and following which the possibility of a third involving nuclear weapons and perhpas the end of the world was a major fear. Indeed it was founded largely to avert such a catastrophe.