NATO, EU and UN

[lordjord96]

so, who likes the idea of these? i dont for one thing im a communist. i dont like much.
but i think that countrys should stay how they are and fight their own wars and not get
noone to help them.

[Ionless]

None of them work for none of them work on their own accord. They're all heavily influenced by US/Russia or the major powers.

[BlueRose]

Non-wartime alliances caused/escalated most 20th century wars. No thank you.

[Derek the Wolf]

They're good ideas on paper, but none of them actually do anything good. Like communism: looks fantastic on paper but doesn't really work in practice.

[Zaurak]

well as one of the founding fathers once said it’s the worst system that ever been tried except for all the rest, it is the least worst of all the scenarios that could play out, and we must exclude theory as well I.E. Communism and socialism that works so great on paper and is an awful catastrophe in reality, we have theese in place not necesarily because they work but more as a deterent, NATO, the UN, and the EU work as kind of fail safe devices dictation the rules of war, offering common protection, and in that manner detering a more powerfull country from attacking a smaller neighbor who would usually have lost except for having the backing of NATO, or if an unjustified war, the theoretical support of the UN

[Triggs]

Lets see, I mostly agree with mr. Wolf. Nato needs to redefine itself and leave the coldwar structure where it belongs. The UN, great....on paper. Just Like Utopia, I'd say it needs some (heckoffalot) of work.

The EU.... right... Let me see...my greatgreat-grandfather on my moms side came here from Ireland, my great-grandmother from Denmark. My family bloodlines include besides these two, French, Italian, Hungarian/Jewish/Russian and Japanese "inputs"

Mostly European I'd say, most definately human. I suppose I don't need a paperweight union to be European. Seriously, the EU is a great idea, it's current form however is very flawed. I'm all for a stronger Union, much structured like the USA. Europe will always retain some of it's cultural diversity regardless of government but we won't achieve that unless we stop having various classes of Europeans within the union.
We need a proper constitution (we could just copy the US or French ones I suppose and translate them into all our languages) some real dreams, a lot less nationalism and some serious boots to kick the old politicians to some small Greek Island and fill them with so much wine they can't do anymore damage... Young folks (40-) should make our union, let the old folks linger on wars and dogma's past.

and ban the import of those friggin' banana's! (except the yummie eco ones)

[Lychee]

I like the EU coz it means all of Europe has the same currency, and it is a lot easier and cheaper to travel between countries

The UN does not work, especially not during the cold war due to the 5 permanent members having veto powers on each vote - entirely ineffective.
Also, it sounds good on paper, but no one actually has to do what the UN tells it to, as each country represented in the United Nations is a sovereign state.
And, countries can just as easily bypass the UN and do things without taking them to the security council or general assembly, such as when America invaded Iraq.

I don't know too much about the effectiveness of NATO...

Except for the EU, the others do little in supporting true human rights, even then its hard to enforce so I am unsure on all 3.

[Fiorino]

Well, WWI and WWII could have been avoided had organisations such as the
UN (well the league of Nations was created after WWI to prevent another world
war, and I think we all know how that one ended) and EU been in place already.
The UN has sent coalitions to countries where there is a conflict, like they did to
Bosnia to stop the genocide that was going on there (however there have also
been occasions where the UN has failed to intervene). There is also the International
Criminal Court (in The Hague, Netherlands) which has tried various dictators over
the years. I'm sorry, I have to disagree with your "each country in it's own place"
idea. Having lived overseas, I can tell you first hand that the world is a LOT bigger
than you think, but also a lot more interconnected. We're all interdependant on eachother. Globalisation means we've passed the point where we can all stay in our cave and not bother eachother anyway. I really hate how some of my fellow Americans
(not pointing out anyone in particular, but probably most rednecks) seem to think that
America is the only country in the world, that everyone else is starving and
that anything foreign is automatically bad. I'd also like to point out that the EU
has made life a LOT EASIER for a lot of Europeans, as an EU citizen can roam
freely in the EU without having to worry about Visas and whatnot.
I think that the US/Canada should sign a deal with the EU, not like combining governments or anything, but like an Enlargement of the Schengen treaty.
This would make things easier on me.

And about communism-while in theory it sounds great, unfortunatley,
it fails to take into account that humans are not robots that are all
born the same. Everyone has different talents, strengths and weaknesses,
and it wouldn't be fair to pay someone who works really hard or the same
as a slacker, what would be his incentive to work harder? This was one of
the problems of the USSR. Also-the members of the communist party auto-
matically become the new elite, which kind of defeats the purpose.
On the other hand, Socialism has some good ideas taken from communism,
like for instance state health care, but without the whole totalitarian
take away your liberties so that everything is "equal".