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]]>As formally expressed by 28 nations the original United Nations in a joint declaration, by the time it was ratified, 51 countries signed into membership. Today there are 193. Three countries of the 196 in the world are not members: Kosovo, The Vatican City, and Taiwan.
Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world, Declare:
(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.
(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the
Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.
The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle, for victory over Hitlerism.
While Hitlerism is no longer a term in current use, it still represents what is still found in the world today, in North African nations, the Middle East, and Latin and South American countries, the political principles or policies of what was the basis of the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945 in Germany. It means, in the words of Mohandas Gandhi, “naked, ruthless force reduced to an exact science and worked with scientific precision.”
The United Nations has not outlived its usefulness. It is significant that every country except the three noted above have a seat at the General Assembly to participate in the cooperative effort for all humans to have a life based on the principles of justice, dignity, and well-being. Through its peacekeeping imperative, the forum of the United Nations provides at its very least the opportunity for countries who have disagreements a place to exercise discussion in order to avoid the ultimate solution of war.
For an extended argument “Why the United Nations is Important to Us,” see the site at http://www.icasinc.org/2005/2005s/2005sgca.html
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