Well, it might just turn the world over to, oh, I don't know....SATAN!

Bush is El Diablo? Hey, I thought the Left told us that Cheney was the supreme evil in the administration...

What would happen if the UN General Assembly was actually given any real power? Probably it would help the West to realize that UN is already dead. Or whatever happens when bunch of populists try to control power...they will wreck havoc and we will end up with a new world order...a real Pax Americana perhaps with viceroys, legions and of course emperors :)) At any rate, how the hell UNGA will have real power anyway ;)

A juster world?

without armed forces there's no real power, so I guess they'd sell their ideology to some group possessing armed forces - oh, but that's already happening, no?. Power without consequences is meaningless.

Probably the most significant consequence of giving the General Assembly real power would be a lifting of the ban on smoking in the UN building.... oh, and peacekeepers would be deployed to midtown to protect UN diplomat vehicles from getting parking tickets. they would be authorized to use force if an NYC tow truck shows up...

But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world.

When has the General Assembly had any real power? IIRC, all it can do is pass non-binding resolutions, and it's been that way since day one.

Passing binding resolutions is something exclusively reserved to the Security Council, and even then, a passed resolution is only really binding if a Great Power is willing to contribute military resources to enforce it.

In practice, this means the only UNSC resolutions anyone has to pay attention to are the ones the US enforces. Everything else that comes out of the UN can be ignored with no consequence more serious than some eurodiplomats saying rude things about you in newspapers, anonymously and off the record.

feh.

A clone army?

the US (along with other great powers) would lose autonomy. and, they would not merely be a deliberative organ as mr. hugo pronounced. but, that's an obvious point.

is it me, or is calling someone the devil kind of child like...i would not want a name-caller making tough global decisions. i could just ask my little brother to do that.

The UN is bad because it's powerless. The UN should be powerless because it's bad.

Nice argument. Rinse, repeat.

i would not want a name-caller making tough global decisions. i could just ask my little brother to do that.

So, would you say it's a good thing we don't have any name-callers making tough global decisions for the USA?

The UN still has the same power and value that it has always had. The fact that it continues to annoy people of all backgrounds is proof of that.

It's like mass marriage counseling. Most of the time it will feel worthless to the parties involved.

May I be the first one to note the glaring irony, that when America does exactly what Chavez does i.e. judging various leaders around the world with insulting characterizations the result is the same?

Did you hear Bill Clinton's comments: "Chavez didn't help is cause." He didn't say that Chavez was wrong calling Bush a devil, it just didn't help his cause! And Rangel was almost as good with " He can't come to my district and call Bush a devil." meaning I'm the one that gets to say these things about my president, not some two-bit dictator.

Did you hear Bill Clinton's comments: "Chavez didn't help is cause." He didn't say that Chavez was wrong calling Bush a devil, it just didn't help his cause! And Rangel was almost as good with " He can't come to my district and call Bush a devil." meaning I'm the one that gets to say these things about my president, not some two-bit dictator.

Well, they can't very well talk up Bush's good points, can they? They'd have to invent some, and that would come back and bite them.

Is everyone too young to remember when Ronald Reagan toured the Russian part of the Soviet Union and made speeches to various groups lambasting his host country? The American press lapped it up! So what to say about Chavez and Ahmadinejad other than they were both speaking for home consumption.