A Zimbabwean U.N.

World Leadership: One hundred ninety-two members to choose from, and what nation does the United Nations come up with to head its commission on "sustainable development." Zimbabwe. We kid you not.

If the U.N. wanted to demonstrate how to destroy a once-prosperous country, it could have no better example than Zimbab-we. No nation has fallen farther and faster than Zimbabwe. It went from being Africa's richest country to a starving, failed tyranny under dictator Robert Mugabe.

With its 2,200% hyperinflation and 80% unemployment, only Mugabe and his murderous supporters have any security.

More significantly for sustainable development, Mugabe burned down some of the country's shanty towns last year in what he called "Operation Drive Out Trash." That sent 700,000 of Zimbabwe's poorest citizens fleeing into the wilderness.

Following the seizure of formerly productive farms owned by white farmers, Zimbabwe's gone from the breadbasket of Africa to a beggar state, needing to import half its food to survive this year.

But never mind that, say 53 members of the U.N.'s Commission on Social Development. They picked Zimbabwe to lead the U.N.'s sustainable development efforts next year. Mugabe crony Francis Nhema will preside.

This comes just a year after the U.N. "reformed" its system for commission selections. It did so assuring the U.S. its $1 billion a year-plus in support would be worth it. Has it been? Today we have Cuba on the new "reformed" human rights council, along with Belarus and Bolivia. Over at the sustainable development commission, Sudan, North Korea, Iran and Cuba will sit in.

How could this happen? Under U.N. rules, it was Africa's turn this year to pick the leader. One might ask why African leaders picked a hellhole like Zimbabwe to represent them on this board.

The answer is politics and favor-trading -- old U.N. pastimes.

For more insight into why Zimbabwe coveted the leadership in the first place , look no farther than the U.N.'s commission Web site.

The commission says it's focused on Africa's problems, including desertification, rural development, agriculture, land and drought -- each of which are glaring examples of Zimbabwe's misrule.

So expect no Zimbabwe-led solutions.

But the panel's plans suggest it will blame global warming and the West for Zimbabwe's ills -- not the systemic destruction of property rights, individual initiative and human rights that characterize all failed states. It's all there, in black and white. No secret.

No wonder Zimbabwe sought to lead the U.N. commission. The sustainable development body will be rendered a meaningless laughingstock as a result. And the suffering of Zimbabwe's oppressed people will continue, with no end in sight.

If the U.N. doesn't want its credibility to go the way of Zimbab-we's ravaged farms, it needs to start seriously reforming itself. It needs, rules, control, disqualifiers and discipline, above all. Otherwise, why should we throw good money after bad?