U.S. Demands on Body Help Drive Up Budget
The additional funds in the latest request would be used to renovate the landmark U.N. headquarters in New York, fund war-crimes investigators in Lebanon and pay $100 million to build a reinforced, attack-resistant U.N. headquarters building in Baghdad. But they would also be used to pay nearly $7 million for a 2009 anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, which Washington believes would serve as a forum to bash Israel.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, insists that the organization will have to find savings or live without its new programs.

On the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Bush spoke before the U.N. General Assembly and challenged the institution to enforce the resolution requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm, suggesting that the institution's reason for being was at stake: "Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?"

Such a waste.

Such a waste.

If the U.S. cut off funding them and withdrew from the
organization, what could they do about it? We should
demand that they refund membership dues!

It would never happen in a million years, but the US should banish that disgusting cesspool of incompetence, hatred, and corruption, then replace it with an Organization of United Democratic Nations...and friends, where the "friends" have no influence on matters of funding, peace-keeping, developement, and aid.

disgusting cesspool of incompetence, hatred, and corruption

Exactly willhelm. We should organize an Alliance of
Democracies, with our friendly allies. The UN is a worthless gang of thugs. The IAEA is a joke, too. We never elected the buffoons and they've overstayed their welcome.