True it's original purpose was to avoid war on the scale of the two world wars but it goes far beyond that now. Consider all the UN organisations there are, its so much more than stopping Bush from doing what he does. But admittedly, that is a failure letting him ignore the UN, that's why the it desperately needs reforming.
True, I'm not saying it fails as a whole, I guess; I'm just being a cynical ass. But that's still one of its main functions and Bush can still able to push his way through and the UN didn't do shit, which makes me believe that if Bush can do it, someone with as much charisma and social propaganda as Hitler could easily cause a genocide. In fact, numerous genocides have already gone completely unreceived by the UN; granted none were in Europe and none started full-scale wars, but nevertheless...
I think the UN is doing a pretty crappy job right about now, at least at fulfilling their original purpose. For economic control and establishing a world market and the like, they don't really have many issues, but none of that really matters if people are still getting slaughtered for no apparent reason.
~D-Draw