I don't know who Phil and Kuby are. I form my opinions on my own, based on many different things I see, hear, and read.
And France gets singled out because they're an easy target with a poor military history. If the media focuses on France being a bunch of capitulating pussies, it's another way to easily manipulate public opinion.
Apparently your collegiate efforts were somewhat wasted, since you're willing to ignore the fact that we had our middle finger extended at the UN all through the 80s, when they were condemning the holy shit out of us for our extracurricular activities in Central America. We put bad guys in positions of power over third-world countries, leave them to their own devices, and blow them to hell when we stand to gain economically. We've been doing it for decades. So spare me the self-righteous crap about fixing our own mistakes.
The US is not as good-hearted as our government would like us to believe. We're going into Iraq for oil. Saddam is what the military would refer to as a "target of opportunity." That's why we've put North Korea on the back burner, even though they're a much bigger military threat than Iraq could ever hope to be.
I wouldn't say the UN has outlived its usefulness. I'd say it's just not useful to the US right now. We ally ourselves with them when it suits us, and we ignore them when it suits us.
________
Lovely Wendie99