NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST

In Iraq, the Kurds and Shiites are about to get a deal done that would allow them to form a government. They say they will offer Sunnis a share of power. For the first time in its history, Iraq will be governed by people representing a majority of the population, and duly elected by those people. When it is done and the new government is seated, it will be a milestone in the history of the region.

IN Lebanon, the U.N. is finally doing what it should be doing, applying pressure to a pariah state that is violating the law (in terms of a UN resolution) and flouting the will of the international community. Isn't that what the founders intended for the U.N.? A body that would regulate the behavior of nation-states to prevent war, genocide, invasions, oppression, etc.? My biggest problem with the U.N. has always been that the body was made up primarily of representatives from tyrannical regimes, whose votes were equal to those representatives that actually were accountable to their peoples. Just as the League of Nations couldn't work when Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin's representatives were in it (Hitler and Mussolini, at least, were honest about the uselessness of the body when withdrawing their representatives), so, too, the U.N. can't work if it is filled with people representing evil regimes. Perhaps, if the world continues to move towards freedom (a very big if, I grant you), the U.N. will be able to someday fulfill its mandate as a body that helps keep the peace.

In Syria, there are still those brave enough to confront the regime, but they are taking a beating. Will the day come, perhaps sooner than later, when the oppressed will feel bold enough and numerous enough to take on their oppressors?