Trump to address the UN General Assembly? I'm a little nervous. . . .

Ok, President Trump is going to make his first address before the UN General Assembly tomorrow, and as a US citizen I'm nervous. I feel like I am going to the prom tomorrow with the horror movie character Carrie. Things can go bad really fast.

The President has recently softened his anti-UN stance, but has said little more than that the UN had potential and he is going to make it great. I wonder if he is going to pass out hats to the to UN members? "Make the UN Great Again." Not really appropriate, but you never know. It won't be the most embarrassjng thing he has done to the United States so far. Is he going to try to turn it into a campaign pep rally? Brag about the crowd? That won't go well. What if he reverts to the anti-globalist, anti-international trade rhetoric that made him popular among conservative ultra-nationalists in the United States? That would be, as emphasized in one of the President's favorite terms, a diisss- aaasss-teeerrrr. 

Or will the President listen to some wise counsel and deliver a relevant, statement about the value of the UN, and how to make it better. Will he admit that the core strategy of the UN since WWII has actually reduced deaths due to war to an all-time historical low? How the World Bank and IMF have helped bring stability to emerging nations by financing economic growth? How global trade that promotes financial interdependence among the nations has been a strong motivator for nations not to go to war with each other? 

The UN is not a perfect arbitrator of world peace and prosperity, but who would expect it would be? Do we really think the UN is capable of bringing about full equality and world peace? Is that the standard? Either world peace and universal prosperity or the UN is a failure? 

The truth is that the UN is a forum so nations can work with other nations to somehow keep an international order that minimizes, as realistically as possible, war, famine, disease, genocide, and the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. It is by no means a perfect international forum, but it is the only one we have. Each nation will, of course, work on behalf of its own best interests. Naturally, the larger and most powerful nations will exert their influences and be somewhat dominant. It is up to these leading nations of the UN to make sure that that countries find common ground that makes it in their best interests to seek global stability and peace while, of course, also promoting their own interests.

Those who do not understan the 20th century and post-WWII history ars less likely to see the value of the UN. Let's hope President Trump has some advisers and speech writers who do understand that history.