League of Nations all over again?

April 22, 1994

IS the UN going down the drain as a peacekeeping organization?... Parallels with the League of Nations begin to look ominously apt. When that organization was set up after World War I, it too faced a world of falling empires, ethnic disputes and Balkan conflicts. It, too, lost American support - and collapsed for that reason, opening the door to the second World War. Without minimizing Europe's failures today, UN peacekeeping is also doomed without the full engagement of the US....

President Clinton came into office with good intentions and new ideas, but failed to win over Congress. Too many members still hanker for isolation and make a false distinction between domestic and foreign affairs, refusing to see that the prosperity and security of the US depend on how much of the rest of the globe is friendly, democratic, and prosperous.