On a campus where speakers often call for increased U.S. cooperation with the United Nations, last night former U.S. Congressman Bob Barr argued that the United States would be better off without the body in his lecture, entitled "Why America Should Get Out of the U.N. ... Yesterday!"
"I love America, and I think our Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of which it is a part, truly is the most magnificent document ever penned by the hands of men," Barr said. "It is that Bill of Rights ... and what it says about why America was formed as a nation that leads me to the conclusion that the United Nations has no role in that."
Drawing on his experience as a former U.S. attorney, Republican representative from Georgia and advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), Barr argued that the United Nations offers America nothing to protect and preserve these rights.
Barr said the first U.S. president understood the need for relationships with other nations but remained deeply leery of a body that could supercede or infringe upon the law of the land.
"Washington never took the position that we should have nothing to do with other nations," Barr said. "But we needed to pay attention to protecting, not isolating ... things that were uniquely American so they could take hold and strengthen again over the years."
Today he is concerned about encroachment from the United Nations on one cherished American freedom: the right to bear arms.
Attempts to get the United States to give up on this right have been unjustified and untenable, he argued. "If you look at any of the areas around the world where firearms have been used very inappropriately, it hasn't been American firearms at all," he said. Instead, the semiautomatic weapons from Eastern Europe and China are the ones that turn into "the [weapons] of choice of genocidal regimes."
Barr said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, as a "plainspoken" and "straightforward" speaker, stood up for Second Amendment rights and gave the bureaucracy a reality check.
"He did something that nice people don't do in the United Nations," Barr said. "He said, 'You're not going to mess with our constitution in our country. Part of our sovereignty is founded on the Bill of Rights.' "
He also spoke to concerns about U.N. encroachment on privacy rights and on criminal justice.
Not only is the United Nations misguided, but it utterly lacks transparency, accountability and "makes [the U.S.] Congress look efficient," he said.
"The United Nations is the most un-open entity, certainly on the international level ... that I've ever seen," he said. "They don't make decisions in an open way, at least not in my experience. They don't themselves feel bound by the same laws and restrictions and limitations that the rest of the world operates under."
To illustrate that the organization considers itself "a cut above" the rest, Barr cited the policies of the U.N. headquarters in New York City. Although the United Nations is markedly in favor of gun control and although the city of New York forbids smoking in public buildings, a visit to the headquarters would not suggest these commitments: "All these people are walking around smoking and carrying automatic weapons," he said.
An organization with a $3 billion budget, he said, should be held more accountable.
"This was very graphically illustrated in the Oil-for-Food program, which was riddled with corruption, with special favors that went in the pockets of U.N. officials and their relatives," he said.
Likewise, he argued that U.N. secretaries-general have little other to do except please the actors that keep them in power.
Indeed, he saw few constructive results whatsoever from U.N. initiatives. "I can't think of any instance [in] which they've even come close to succeeding," he said. "What have they ever succeeded at? I'm not quite sure that they've succeeded at anything but [keeping] themselves in office, so to speak."
While Barr offered only limited input onto his thoughts on how the organization should be improved, he did say that international involvement and cooperation are important.
"There are a number of areas in [today's] technologically-based society where international organizations could play a very important role," but in a more focused and less expansive sense, he said, suggesting better-coordinated privacy controls and a humanitarian element as worthy uses of international will.
While there has been pressure in the past for the United Nations "to clean its house and get its act together," little seems to have come from it, he said.
One audience member questioned whether the United States, too, might be guilty of imposing its sovereignty on other countries. Such interventionist policies, however they are justified, are worth questioning, Barr said.
"Because the United Nations is there ... Bush I, the Clinton administration and now Bush II, have used the U.N. to try and justify their interventionist policies," he said. "That to me is inappropriate."
Reaction to the speech was mixed. Freshman Courtney Morrissey thought that Barr's remarks were interesting, even if didn't embrace his views. "I came into this lecture determined to disagree with him just because of my liberal stance," she said. While she still was not in agreement with him after his speech, she said that the lecture was more thought-provoking than she had expected it to be.
Freshman Nick Burns was not as impressed, but was still happy to hear an opposing viewpoint. "I think he made relatively poor arguments in terms of dropping out of the U.N. [and relied only on] anecdotal evidence. I'm disappointed with the justifications, but I'm glad he came," he said.
Reaction from campus political leaders was split along partisan lines. Tufts Republicans President Jordan Greene enjoyed the event. "I was very impressed," he said. "I think the most interesting part was the suggestions he gave for reforming the United Nations."
Tufts Democrats President Kayt Norris said that these very suggestions for reform made the title of the event a misnomer. "I think it was clearly inaccurately titled," she said. "He clearly doesn't think we need to pull out of the U.N."
The event, which attracted around 60 students, was sponsored by the Tufts Republicans.
