For a long time I was basically of the opinion that the United Nations was merely useless when it came to dealing with war, peace and the other goings-on between nations. I may be a little slow on the uptake, but now I believe that the United Nations is far worse; it is a barrier to peace and a shield to tyrants all the while handcuffing nations that could alleve suffering.

The serious eye-opening moment came earlier this week when U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that Israeli forces had "apparently, deliberate[ly]" targeted a U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIL) outpost, killing a Canadian peacekeeper and three U.N. observers from Austria, China and Finland. A day later, Annan tried to backtrack by emphasizing the "apparently" over the "deliberate," but not even the usually sycophantic U.N. press corps was buying it.

The real question is why in the heck was the U.N. peacekeeping force in the middle of a war between Israel and Hezbollah in the first place? Why weren't they pulled out when the first Hezbollah rockets flew?

The answer is simple: The U.N. is using them as a haphazard shield for the terrorists. The UNFIL was supposed to monitor the border between Israel and Lebanon and oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. While they verified Israel's pull-out six years ago, that disarmament thing just fell by the wayside.

This is really nothing new.

From Rwanda, to Bosnia to Darfur, the U.N. has a habit of standing idly by as tyrants, terrorists and thugs start wars and murder innocents.

Hearkening back to last week's column by Thomas Sowell that makes the case for peace activists/movements actually encouraging aggression, the U.N. is the world's largest, most respected and most destructive peace group.

The Security Council passes resolution after resolution against Iraq, then refuses to do anything to enforce them. When the U.S., Great Britain, Italy and other countries take it upon themselves to enforce those resolutions, the world decries an "illegal war" to remove a tyrant and mass murderer.

The kabuki dance surrounding Iran and its nuclear program is another example...

Not to mention North Korea and its rockets...

And don't even get me started on its "new" human rights panel.

The U.N. is worse than useless, it's dangerous. It adds to the evil in the world today. It's a debating society that is incapable of actually doing anything.