Rating: 
Summary: Sensible Insights Against the United Nations
Review:
This is a short but very worthwhile book that while it might be flawed in some small ways, renders and invaluable service but putting all of the arguments against the United Nations into one easy to understand and well-organized book.
The author is dramatically and compellingly sensible when he addresses the insanity of letting a bunch of left of center poor nations, each led by fat-cat corrupt bureaucrats living high on the hog and stealing their own countries blind, "out vote" the bill-payer--the USA--and saddle the USA with all kinds of costly and often ludicrous program demands.
He is also compelling in condemning United Nations tolerance of terrorism and of corruption. While the US continues to support 44 dictators--something that is addressed by Ambassador Mark Palmer is his superb book on "The Real Axis of Evil" and therefore something we have to stop before we can credibly criticize the United Nations, the author makes a strong case for dumping the UN and moving toward a new form of organization that is comprised of only the democratic nations that are not corrupt and that can pay their bills.
The author arouses fury, at least in me, when he points out that Russia and China have manipulated the system and avoided their responsibilities by paying, in 2003, $18.6 million for Russia and $23.7 million for China, this at a time when the US is paying 22% of the entire United Nations system budget. ENOUGH!!
There are over 15 places throughout the book where I have "AGREE!" in the margins, and I give the author very high marks for itemizing everything that is wrong with the United Nations and that needs to be fixed in a new organization. At one point, I could even see the great value of throwing the UN out of the US, of the Rockefeller family repossessing the land they gave to the UN for its HQS. Enough. Let them move to Geneva while we create a completely new building and a completely new democratic-capitalist organization that can serve as the political and economic counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
This brings up another point--the author very wisely points out all that is wrong with the European countries that abuse their NATO membership to get a free ride on regional security, when they are unwilling to invest even minimalist amounts in their own armed forces and in forces that could be use to the coalition. The author makes important points against both Germany and France that need to be understood by all Americans.
The only weakness in this book is that it relies too heavily on Israeli sources. Israel routinely lies to the United States in the pursuit of its policies. It considers the US and US officials to be "Shiksa" or "non-Jewish girl" that are--I cannot use the correct word here--"pokable without consequence." "Poking" a "Shiksa" does not count, as my Jewish friend told me in college--you can demean them and dishonor them because they are outside the faith. That is what Israel does with information, to the US, and we are vulnerable to this because of the mediocrity of our own classified intelligence community which is terrible with languages, including Hebrew.
I do not normally agree with all that neo-conservatives say, but in this case, I believe the author has rendered a stellar service, and his book is not only worthwhile, it is politically actionable. Good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond the Asylum
Review: In this book, Inside the Asylum, Jed Babbin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense has written a concise (143 pages) but detailed and very realistic analysis of the UN and Old Europe's failings as international actors on the world stage today. This "must read" demonstrates that the UN and Old Europe are "morally bankrupt" and that neither is making the "world safe for democracy." In fact, on the contrary, this author demonstrates, unequivocally and unabashedly, that the UN and Old Europe are not only ineffective but false friends to the United States and a growing threat to international peace and security.Grounded in solid research and sobering facts, plus his own extensive governmental experience, the first part of this very readable book deals with the glaring deficiencies associated with today's United Nations. This former Deputy Undersecretary during the administration of President George H. W. Bush is highly critical of what the UN has become --- an institution that ignores nuclear proliferation, is a mid-wife to terrorism, turns a blind eye to its own corruption and incompetence, squanders its members financial contributions, and facilitates a quagmire diplomacy. Even if highly critical of the UN as an effective international player, Babbin is no unthinking unilateralist. He states that "America cannot and should not be isolationist . . ." but that does not mean that "we have to be multilateralist in the sense UN members want us to be." On the contrary, the author is a realistic multilateralist. And this means that the U.S. should seek a new and reformed UN and our "destination should be a new global organization of the free and democratic nations with which we share values and goals." Babbin, ever the realist in international affairs, acknowledges that this new framework will take time and effort but he is sure that this new organization of the free and democratic nations will "minimize the damage the UN can cause while we move ourselves and our allies into a new framework for international cooperation." The second part of the book deals with the failings associated with what Babbin calls "Old Europe" --- the major nations of the European Union, France, Germany and the Benelux countries. In this second part, he builds upon his earlier thesis regarding the need for a new and reformed UN. Babbin calls for a new and reformed NATO, outside the framework of the European Union and a failing Old Europe. In fact, the "EUnuchs"(and the UN)are "united in seeing America as a threat to their own powers .... Many states within the EU follow France's lead and see their role as competing against America, rather than cooperating with us." The United States should lay the foundation for a new Anglo-European forum that will reform NATO, excluding nations that are not our partners and that do not "share a similar poltical and strategic vision and similar rates of defense expenditures with the United States." This new political/military alliance "will be better suited to mutually beneficial consultation, cooperation, and action." And it will be a more aggressive partner in the war against Islamo-Fascism. During this presidential year, this is a book (to be read in tandem with Endgame by Generals Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely) that calls for an American foreign and defense policy that emphasizes American sovereignty, decisive/pre-emptive self defense, reformed/realistic international cooperation and an aggressive/robust war against nuclear proliferation and Islamo-Fascism. At the same time, it offers real and specific recommendations for a realistic multilateral cooperation with like minded democracies interested in the same robust and energetic war against the Terror Masters. And this means, finally, that the UN, in Babbin's words should no longer be "an international enclave, no longer American territory. It is elegant, but still politically and intellectually a slum. Turtle Bay needs to be reclaimed for America, and so does our foreign polciy with Old Europe. President Bush has begun the process. Now is the time to finish the job."
Rating:
Summary: The Problems of the Past ¿ A Plan for the Future
Review: Jed Babbin has written an important book that articulates why we must be very careful in our relations with the UN and Old Europe. At last there is an analyst with the wisdom to discern the truth and the guts to print the facts. The corruption and incompetence of the UN is unconscionable. The "Oil for Food" program appears more like a "line the pockets of the bureaucrats" program. The idea of ceding our national sovereignty to an organization that tells miscreants, "Stop, or we'll tell you stop again" is abhorrent. Mr. Babbin shows that Old Europe is in decline. It would be foolish and irresponsible for the United States to become entangled with the EU. As for the French, the book supports the idea that while they may produce nice wine and good mustard, they can be counted on to consistently confuse profit for moral imperative. Inside the Asylum is a must read for those concerned about America's direction for the future.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Book From An Insider
Review: Jed Babbin was Deputy Undersecretary of Defense in during the George H. W. Bush administration, and as such had great exposure to the inside workings of government including US relations with the UN. The book is short, easy to read, and generally well documented. It has an extensive "notes" section with many original sources cited, and photocopies of numerous pertinent UN documents toward the end of the book.
The UN has devolved into a sewer of international despotism, and is now nothing more than a third world debating society whose time has long past. Babbin explains the inner workings of the UN from how the UN feels free to assist Saddam Hussein in the totally corrupt "oil for food" program which netted Saddam (and the UN) billions, to how anti-American moral relativist Kofi Annan devotes his time to propping up third world dictatorships and tyrants. If you ever wanted to know how Libya could replace the US on the UN Human Rights commission, it's in here. If you ever wanted to know how France got a permanent seat on the security council (it was a goodwill gesture), it's in here. If you ever wanted to know how the UN works against the forces of western democracy embodied by the US and the UK, it's in here.
The last part of the book exposes the political machinations of "Old Europe," by which Babbin largely means France and Germany. Babbin cites the ever astute Mark Twain in a perfectly descriptive quotation on France: "France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks, it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes." The more things change, the more they stay the same.
There is no questioning what side of the road Jed Babbin is on. I find this to be a cogently presented book that is on the money. With one possible exception, I believe that the one star reviews of this book are by leftists who have not actually read the book. The one that may have read it claims to be a UN insider, but offers no evidence that anything Babbin has said is factually incorrect. The point here is not to dissuade people critical of the book from reviewing it, but rather to point out that, in general, the people who dislike this book have not read the book, and therefore aren't really qualified to judge it. The people who have actually read the book with an open mind seem to find it important and relevant, by and large, I note.
I think that Babbin has done the nation and the world a huge favor by writing "Inside the Asylum." I recommend that everyone read it before the November elections.
Rating:
Summary: A quick way to get up to speed
Review: One way to think of this useful little book is as an executive summary of ideas developed more fully elsewhere. I would particularly recommend Jean Francois Revel's "Anti-Americanism" and Kenneth Timmerman's "The French Betrayal of America" as more in-depth explorations of some of Jed Babbin's central topics. But if you don't have time to read those, then "Inside the Asylum" is a decent brief alternative. And given Babbin's experience and access (many quotes from key international leaders are introduced with the phrase "He told me..."), there is a fair amount of interesting and useful original reporting.
International affairs are a subject Americans as a whole don't seem to pay much attention to (except when we're being shot at). And so while most of us have a vague sense that there's something not quite right about the United Nations any more, it may be hard to articulate quite what that is. Babbin lays it all out, and makes clear his conviction that ultimately, the UN isn't "fixable" any more. A more radical -- in the original sense of "to the root" -- solution is called for, and Babbin offers his ideas.
Babbin makes a pretty strong case that there's nothing wrong with US foreign policy that submitting it to the control of the UN would repair, and nothing good about US policy that would be rendered better still by gaining UN approval for it. While the ground he covers may not be entirely new, the author presents his argument with thoroughness and style. It's a case that defenders of the United Nations need to -- and are conspicuously failing to -- address.
Rating: 
Summary: Two sides to every story
Review: The central theme of this and many other books is that anyone who disagrees with or criticises the USA or its government, at home or abroad, is motivated by one or more of the following: self interest, envy or hate.[...] Facts and statistics are in short supply, unless applicable to the story line. This book is therefore entertaining proof that democratic process is, contrary to popular belief, alive and kicking in the USA. While the hysterically skewed themes of the book range from laughabley absurd to deeply offensive, it is, of course, entirely valid and relevant to have these points of view represented. I would therefore reccommend anyone who reads this book to read any of Michael Moores, for example, not to mention a few history books. After all, what's democracy anyway if you don't read and digest all sides of the story?
Further proof of the extreme political view points in the USA. Read this with a very large pinch of salt and tongue firmly in cheek, then have a cup of coffee and reflect that anyone who writes anything is only doing so to sell copies of the book and make money. Anything a politician says or does is primarily aimed at winning votes.
*Chirac was the first overseas leader to visit New York and offer sympathy on behalf of his nation after Sept 11th.
*Where are the weapons of mass destruction we were told about?
Rating:
Summary: Shorter Jed Babbin
Review: The John Birch Society was right after all.
And those commies under your bed are now Islamic terrorists. Dont' think. Just be afraid!
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing we haven't heard before
Review: This book is a synthesis of what you have been hearing on every right-wing talk radio show for a decade or more. The book argues that the US needs to get out of the UN because the UN functions solely to constrain US power, and that the UN lacks any moral authority because it is dominated by Third World authoritarian regimes voting as a bloc. The US and other Western Democracies need to form a "new UN" whose membership is exclusively nations that respect individual rights. That is the only way to have an international decisionmaking body with any moral authority. The last half of the book is essentially a tirade on the decadence of the French and other continental European nations. That is easily skipped, if you have read Robert Kagan's Of Paradise and Power. There is no need to read the last half of the book, except for the chapter on reforming NATO. Babbin wants NATO preserved (not a common opinion on right-wing talk radio). But he does want to reform it, so that only nations that can maintain a military readiness technologically compatible with the US should be able to participate in NATO planning, joint exercises, etc. This is because only the British and French have maintained their military expenditures at a level to maintain any level of readiness. The French though have not been a part of NATO command structure since the 1960s, so they don't participate in a meaningful way right now. Kagan is certainly more scholarly than Babbin in his delivery. Babbin's book has the pacing and hyperbole of a speech being given to a company of Army Rangers.
Rating:
Summary: quick and easy read
Review: This is a quick and easy book to read since the author only presents the very few facts that support his opinions. If you waste your money on this book, at least you won't waste much time.
Rating:
Summary: Slanted But Accurate
Review: This is an accurate picture of things, but heavily slanted in some areas (it IS possible to be accurate but slanted). The UN is becoming a serious detriment to democracies around the globe. Hopefully something will be done before it gets a stronger foothold.
Although the UN has been helpful in the past (and not just always on the US side of things), it now has become a group hangout for awful leadership of questionable countries. We, the US, should not be wasting our money on it. If it is such a great thing, let those "other" countries pay for it. It is NOT helping world peace.
The author points out Clinton's errors and rightfully so. However, near the end of Clinton's last term, he was getting a change of heart. In fact, if I recall correctly, he also was calling for downgrading or eliminating the UN. I agree. Unfortunately, many of his followers do not (so much for the "political genius", eh).
This was a good read. Try it.
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