You think the US is alone in torture? This is child's play compared to what happens in China or Russia. You are mistaken if the US is the only one.

Cool, comparing the US to developing countries.

That's setting the bar low.

Obviously if we aren't as bad as someone else we don't need to worry about our own misdoings.

The US has veto power in the UN.

> The US has veto power in the UN.

Strictly speaking, the US has veto power in the UN Security Council, which usually has primary responsibility for binding actions on matters of international peace and security, including, inter alia, taking binding action in response to threats to the same such as by grave breaches of international law by a nation-state.

However, its worth noting that -- at US urging in the context of the Korean War -- the UN established a mechanism (under the "Uniting for Peace" resolution [0]) by which the General Assembly can step in when the Security Council is unable to act because of deadlock among the veto powers.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly...

The UN does not impose trade bans. You know why the Secretary General, the UN's leader, is called that? Because he is a secretary for the people who actually have power, the leaders of nation-states.

> You know why the Secretary General, the UN's leader, is called that? Because he is a secretary for the people who actually have power.

Secretary is essentially another word for Minister, and NATO's Secretary-General is its supreme commander in wartime. The UN's leader is called the Secretary General because he is in essence its Prime Minister, not because you get confused between a Secretary and his/her secretaries...

Unless you think General Secretary Joseph Stalin was a powerless functionary, of course.

>NATO's Secretary-General is its supreme commander in wartime

>The UN's leader is called the Secretary General because he is in essence its Prime Minister

Both are wrong and wildly imaginative.

>General Secretary Joseph Stalin

Yes, but there's also a historic reason behind that title. The leader (like Chairman Mao) of the Soviet Union was supposed to be a sort of secretary for the workers. "Soviet" actually means "council"; the "chairman" and "secretary" names are communist propagandaspeak to give the impression that the workers are the ones in charge.

You're getting down voted, but your comment is true. The UN itself has no power, it relies on the member states to enforce decisions.