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  Date / Time: 4/22/2009 12:16 AM UTC

  United Nations looked foolish hosting Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
  

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  A demonstrator dressed as a clown gestures at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his speech at the UN's Conference against Racism in Geneva, Switzerland United Nations looked foolish hosting Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad At this point, no one should be shocked by what transpired at the United Nations conference on racism in Geneva on Monday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, blasted Israel, calling it the "most cruel and repressive racist regime." Dozens of Western diplomats left the hall in protest. Others, with low expectations based on past history, had already declined to attend the event: the U.S., Germany, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and of course, Israel. Yesterday, the Czech Republic refused to rejoin the proceedings. After Ahmadinejad's inflammatory speech, two protesters with rainbow clown wigs pelted him with red foam clown noses. Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary General, rebuked the Iranian leader for his remarks. If this latest brouhaha sounds vaguely familiar, that's because at the 2001 conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, Israel was also the only nation criticized. This year's event has been referred to as Durban II. Some things never change. The latest hateful remarks were made all the more awful by their timing with Holocaust remembrances this week. Obama was right to skip the Geneva conference, saying it would have put the U.S. impratur "on something we just don't believe in." It's just another glaring example of the U.N.'s failure to reach an effective and meaningful consensus among its member nations. The General Assembly, captive to Arab nations, was useless in the days prior to the war in Iraq. More recently, the U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea's recent missile test and threatened to tighten sanctions. But that doesn't seem to make much of a difference to North Korea's agenda. The U.N. has been a whipping boy for a variety of commentators across the political spectrum. To be sure, they have done some things right and deserve credit for them, too: world food programs, disaster relief, efforts to reduce poverty and child mortality, economic development programs and strategies to safeguard the environment. They have deployed peacekeeping troops and campaigned vigorously for arms control and clearing land mines. These are all important issues that any number of other organizations, public and private, work on as well. Of course, the only problem is that on the global issues where the U.N. should be uniquely qualified to wield influence and effect change -- whether in Bosnia or the Arab-Israeli fight -- it is a resounding failure. On the great issues of the day, the U.N. -- and especially its human rights commission -- borders on irrelevancy. The United Nations Association, which advocates for greater U.S. involvement with the U.N., has great hopes of Obama engaging with the organization in a way that Bush would never consider. "Our premise is that it's better for the U.S. to be a part of the U.N., to lead," said Chris Tangney, a UNA spokesman. But until the U.N. improves its track record on the world stage, that will be a very hard sell indeed

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