You know what, why not?

Congress woman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen(R-FL), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wants to make the dues paid to the UN voluntary. At first blush this sounded isolationists to me but upon further reflection…

"Making U.N. funding voluntary will give the U.S. control over how our contributions are spent at the U.N. Otherwise, U.S. taxpayer dollars will keep being spent on the bad, the ugly and the indefensible, and there will continue to be no incentive for the U.N. to reform," she said.

It appears that her goal is not for the U.S. to pull out of the U.N. altogether, but rather reform the institution. And how better to do that than controlling the purse strings? Currently the U.S. is responsible for almost a quarter of the U.N.'s budget, by far the largest contributor. So withholding that kind of funding would certainly get the attention of those in charge. And given the abuse, corruption and outright anti-American/Israeli sentiments, Congress woman Ros-Lehtinen's proposal would seem reasonable. So what does the state department have to say about it?:

"We just don't think this is the right way to go about it," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a briefing Tuesday. "Rather, we would like to work within the U.N. system and will continue to try and do so on U.N. reform."

Reform from within? REALLY! Let's take a look-see at just a few of the great deeds this hollowed body has accomplished:

1. Many sternly worded letters to North Korea that accomplished absolutely nothing.
   
2. Members of the Human Rights counsel include: Libya, China and Cuba (Murderer's row huh?)
   
3. Condemnation of Israel's attack on the Gaza Flotilla (sovereign nations can't defend their borders anymore)
   
4. Israel is the only UN member not permitted to stand for election to the full range of UN bodies (a restriction not applied to such upstanding global citizens like Iran, Cuba and until recently Libya.
   

But no the Administration and the State Department are exercising smart power here. See people like Congress woman Ros-Lehtinen and me are just not clever enough to see that by allowing the U.N. to continue its naughty ways, it is somehow good for America. The one thing these folks have in common is their lack of understanding that America as unique in the world. Something other nations should aspire too be. Rather, they see a utopian one government world order based on autocracy where the elite are the only ones qualified to rule.