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Comment by PradeetPatel | Hacker News Reader

At these unprecedented times like this I wish the United Nations can take decisive actions against aggression of this nature.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the citizens of Ukraine, stay strong.

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unprecedented times

Unfortunately this is more like back to old norms. I hope the US and EU have the stomach to deal with this, but the rhetoric is not heartening. I'm not hearing leaders preparing us for sacrifice. And I don't mean war, I mean I don't see leaders with the stomach to handle $5 gas or natural gas shortages.

Now imagine if China decided to annex a few nations... Literally nothing would be done beyond some meaningless squabbling. No politicians would sacrifice their career and likely life to make that point

We have 5 dollar gas in California today. It's been pretty easy to find for a couple months tbh.

Pretty sure Russia is in rotation to be head of the UN Security Council right now. Not sure how that's working out.

Head or otherwise, they've got a permanent veto on anything the Security Council does. So do China, the US, France, and the UK.

United Nations Resolution 377 [1]

    "Reaffirming the importance of the exercise by the Security Council of its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and the duty of the permanent members to seek unanimity and to exercise restraint in the use of the veto, ...

    "Conscious that failure of the Security Council to discharge its responsibilities on behalf of all the Member States… does not relieve Member States of their obligations or the United Nations of its responsibility under the Charter to maintain international peace and security,

    "Recognizing in particular that such failure does not deprive the General Assembly of its rights or relieve it of its responsibilities under the Charter in regard to the maintenance of international peace and security, ...

    "Resolves that if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembl...

Yes, the Uniting for Peace resolution is a framework for UN collective action in face of veto-power obstructionism, but it doesn't create either the capacity or the will to wage war against a major nuclear power. It works when the malefactor is a diplomatically protected client of a veto power, and maybe if it was one of the lesser (though still nuclear armed) veto powers, but turning back the main force of the military of the USA, Russian Federation, or PRC on their own doorstep? Uniting for Peace is a sideshow for that, it mainly is going to rest on whether one or both of the others of the major powers is willing to commit fully to the fight, and willing to accept the potential of escalation to a major strategic nuclear exchange.

(That doesn't mean it's useless; UfP could be used for coordinated action that isn't direct application of armed force, including a globalized sanctions regime.)

I watched the meeting. The Russian representative said things like, "Acting as the current president of the Security Council, I thank the gentleman from Ukraine for his remarks. Acting in my capacity as the representative from Russia, Ukraine blows goats, and here's why," before launching into a confusing list of nonsensical reasons why Ukraine really belongs to Russia.

Nobody, but nobody, was buying what he was selling, and you could tell he didn't much care if they did or not.

The statement from the Kenya delegate was particularly moving, worth a watch if you can find the video.

> The statement from the Kenya delegate was particularly moving, worth a watch if you can find the video.

This one? [0]

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxZlaiuicYM

Yes.

These are very precedented times. Which is one of the problems.

Is it the same United Nations where Russia is now chairing the Security Council and has an absolute veto power over any decision there? Or we have another one which we could use in cases like that? Where did we put it? It's time to get it out.

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