The Three Most Important (and Ignored) News Stories of Late

There are three events currently in the news that will shape the future of this earth like very few others. Although these stories are world-changing events, some have received little to no coverage from the media - only the blogosphere. I'm not talking about the US Presidential election, the confirmation of Rice or Gonzales, or even the Michael Jackson trial. These three events are more important than any of these, but have yet to be truly examined on the 6 o'clock news.

1) The Elections in Afghanistan
For the first time in history the free people of Afghanistan were able to vote for their leaders. This may not seem like any big deal to Americans, but to have a country so immersed in terrorism and corruption come full circle and start down the path of democracy is truly an amazing thing. Let's remember that Afghanistan was the USSR's Vietnam, and now, decades later, a woman in Afghanistan was the first to head to the polls and vote.

2) The Elections in Iraq
What more can be said for the Iraqi people in their pursuit of freedom and democracy? The folks at Power Line have this post about how the Iraqi's feel about their right to vote, and we should be quick to remember how far the oppressed people of that country have come. Many Democrats have been quick to belittle the elections as something we shouldn't be overzealous about celebrating, and it is true that we have a long way to go in Iraq, but to think that just a few months ago the opinion we all "should" have had was that elections in Iraq, or the democrization of any country by force, was an impossibility. Not only do these elections show the will of America and our military, but the desire of the Iraqi people to be free. We should take this event as an example of how many of the oppressed peoples of the word would react when given the chance to be free.

3) The UN Controversies
The failures of the UN over the past decade is the most important and most underreported story if the past 20 years. The UN's corruption seems to know no bounds, and the nations of the world and the media seem to be shameless in their indifference towards it.

Before the start of World War II the League of Nations, the UN's predecessor, started to lose some international strength and respect, if it ever had much to begin with. When Hitler started working towards building an empire, the League decided on a policy of appeasement. They believed that they cold give Germany what they wanted and by doing so that they could save Europe from another war. Now we all know that appeasement was not exactly a successful strategy and that the policy did nothing to prevent Hitler's aspirations for world conquest. The point I want to make is that the UN's policy of appeasement isn't based on a desire to prevent war, but by a desire by a few of it's bureaucrats to make money.

The UN was bought off by Saddam Hussein. It's just that simple. The Oil for Food program was just one program that was a cover for Saddam to pay members of the UN to leave him alone. It's quite earth-shattering to think that a rouge state such as Iraq was before the war was effective in buying its security through bribing the UN. In addition to bribing the UN itself, members of the security council were also paid to prevent sanctions from increasing against Iraq, as well as preventing a UN resolution to allow the US to remove Saddam by force. I'm not implying that these action of the UN will lead to a third world war or anything, I'm just stating that it is amazing that the world media has largely ignored one of the most sweeping corruption cases the world has ever seen.

With the exception of purchasing your security through bribing its bureaucrats, the UN has proved mostly worthless in recent history. It has been completely unable to effect any kind of control over rouge states and nations operating without any regard for human life or decency. The folks at Diplomad also like to point out the UN's tendency to ignore the United States and it's military's assistance in world disasters. Besides it's sweeping resolutions, the UN no longer has the ability or desire to carry out it's purpose. This total collapse of the UN's effectiveness and it's ability to positively affect the world is the biggest story of the decade, if not much more.

There you have it. If there are other events that you believe will have a greater affect on the world, let me know.