By William A. Levinson

Nithing, a word of Scandinavian origin, is the most inherently offensive word in existence. It means an enemy of humanity whose evil goes far beyond the rational self-interest of a common criminal. A criminal might kill for gain, but a nithing, like Lawrence Russell Brewer or Ted Bundy, murders for pleasure. If somebody called you a nithing in Viking times, you had to fight a duel (holmgang) with him to avoid outlawry.

The U.N. has proven repeatedly that it is a liability and not an asset to world peace. It has served as an enabler for international aggression and terroristic violence, and it should accordingly be called the "United Nithings."

Our purpose is not merely to assign a clever name to the U.N., but instead to demonstrate that the U.N. is in fact a collective nithing: an enabler and facilitator of pure evil ranging from terroristic violence to genocide. The U.N. was fatally defective from the moment of its foundation as an alliance against Nazi Germany.

We refer to the charter membership of the Soviet Union as ruled by Adolf Hitler's equally genocidal counterpart Joseph Stalin.

Stalin was about a decade ahead of Hitler in putting people into cattle cars for deportation to concentration camps and/or liquidation. He then colluded with Hitler to attack Poland in 1939, which led to the collapse of Polish resistance against the Nazis. Stalin then attacked Finland, thus forcing it onto the Axis side when Hitler finally turned on his accomplice in mass murder and genocide. Field Marshal Mannerheim, however, refused to allow the deportation of Finnish Jews: "While Jews serve in my army I will not allow their deportation."

The U.N. became an enabler for military aggression and terroristic violence shortly after the Axis' defeat. By "enabler" we do not mean an active participant in a crime against humanity, but rather an entity that uses its international prestige to legitimize such a crime. The Soviet Union could and did use its Security Council veto to prevent any serious response to its invasion of Hungary in 1956. The inaction of the so-called world government therefore legitimized and enabled this act of violence according to the principle that silence gives consent.

Mainland China also holds a veto in the Security Council, so the U.N.'s silence gives consent to China's illegal occupation of Tibet, its massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square, and its use of political prisoners for "medical" exercises worthy of the Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele. The very presence of China, which has almost the worst possible Freedom House ratings for political and civil rights, in the United Nations at the expense of the free nation Taiwan underscores the U.N.'s total lack of moral legitimacy.

China is also why the U.N. remained silent in the face of North Korea's murderous act of war against South Korea in 2010.

The Palestinians' application for U.N. membership will include two proven lies, as shown by this statement: "Any candidate for U.N. membership must first submit a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stating it is a 'peace-loving' state and accepts the U.N. Charter." The deliberate and unprovoked launch of a single rocket or mortar shell, let alone dozens or hundreds by the Palestinians, at a sovereign nation is an act of war.

A "country" that does this cannot claim to be peace-loving. The Palestinians are also holding an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, and prisoners of war are not held during peacetime. "Palestine" is therefore legally at war with Israel and can be held collectively responsible through unrestricted counterattacks on all military-related assets including roads, infrastructure, and any factory that produces war-related material.

The Palestinians have also proven repeatedly that they do not accept the U.N. Charter: "to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors." The Palestinians selected the mother of four terrorists to represent their statehood campaign, and their schools encourage young children to grow up to be terrorists. If Ban Ki-moon accepts the Palestinians' letter of application, he will have effectively signed his name to two proven and blatant lies.

The United Nations' total impotence, if not willful inaction, in the face of numerous acts of genocide underscores further its total unworthiness of respect or even recognition by any civilized person. Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891) actually predicted the U.N.'s uselessness long before it or its equally worthless predecessor, the League of Nations, existed:

Some have proposed to replace diplomacy with a permanent assembly of deputies chosen by different nations to adjust the various international disputes and interests and thus to prevent all future wars. ... I have more confidence in the judgment and power of governments than in the Areopagus of delegates selected by the peoples and international brotherhood or what has been proposed in this direction, which is suited only to create Babylonian confusion. (Daniel J. Hughes, Moltke on the Art of War; Selected Writings.)

The work "10 Reasons to Abolish the UN" elaborates considerably with material that was not available to Count Moltke during his lifetime. There is an obvious way to trim our massive federal deficit by more than $6 billion, and it is past time to put it into practice.

The best way for an authority figure to destroy his or her authority is to issue an order which he knows his subordinates, or those he regards as subordinates, will not obey. We therefore almost hope the U.N. General Assembly will vote to create a Palestinian state so Israel can treat the resolution with the contempt it deserves, and/or treat "Palestine" as an entity with which it is legally at war by the latter's choice. This will underscore the fact that the U.N. has neither moral legitimacy nor any authority that any civilized nation is obliged to respect, and will relegate it to the well-deserved status of "United Nithings."

[William A. Levinson, P.E. is the author of several books on business management, including content on organizational psychology as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.]