Over pan-fried corn-crusted rainbow trout and herb-roasted organic chicken, almost 50 people learned last night at the White Dog Cafe that the future of the U.N. and the conflict in the Middle East is complex, tricky and not likely to be alleviated any time soon.
William Luers, president of the United Nations Association of the United States of America -- a grassroots organization which advocates on behalf of the United Nations -- spoke about the current role of the organization in global affairs at a "table talk" dinner.
Leurs talked especially about the United Nation's role in Iraq, and cautioned that U.S. military action is not the remedy to problems that are social, religious and ethnic.
"If the hammer is your only tool, every problem looks like a nail," he said.
The high-profile occupation of Iraq by the U.S. has caused a flood of terrorists into the region, which Leurs warned may get worse.
"The fact is people who live in Iraq are terrified," he said. "Many [non-government organizations] have left. The Red Cross is gone. The IMF and the World Bank won't go in. These stories are not coming out and the situation on the ground is very dangerous."
The United Nations remains ambivalent about entering the fray in Iraq because it is "demoralized, skeptical and not convinced it is their war," Leurs said.
His generic advice for Iraq was the establishment of a swift government that required the full participation of Iraqi citizens.
But even he admits the future for Iraq, the United Nations and the world looks bleak.
"Things are probably going to get worse, but maybe I'm wrong," he said. "U.S. interest is profoundly committed to a disastrous course."
The eclectic bunch of Philadelphia residents who attended the dinner expressed concern at this hazy prediction, but said they were pleased by the presentation.
Mt. Airy resident Bob Groves described the United Nations as "one ray of light in a dim world."
But Leurs was less optimistic.
"I am not so sure I believe in the ideal anymore," he said. "You detract from its strength. The United Nations is a means, not a sole solution."
The head of the local Philadelphia UNA, Norma Van Dyke, concurred.
"You have to be able to criticize any bureaucracy -- your alma mater, the place where you work," she said. "It doesn't serve the United Nations not to be realistic about what it is and its own limitations."
In the spirit of academic scholarship, people left with more questions than they arrived with -- touching on their own individual role in global affairs as well as the tenuous one the United Nations must now chart.
