|
UNCLE
SAM, THE U.N. DEADBEAT by IAN WILLIAMS: 03/6/2007
(MaximsNews.com, U.N.)
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./ - 03
June 2007 –
Congress won't pay the U.N. the money it promised - and
wonders why the US loses influence abroad. And the presidential candidates are
silent about it.
|
Between
John Bolton and Iraq, it is not difficult to find reasons why America's
diplomatic currency is plunging along with the dollar.
But
another reason has nothing to with the White House - but the congressional
circus's latest performance.
At a
time when the U.S. is proposing and voting for UN peacekeeping operations on
a huge scale, and when its new Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad is trying to foist more responsibility for Iraq on the
organisation, the US is running a tab of almost $1bn in arrears with the UN
- and that will increase even more by the end of the year based on the
latest amounts budgeted by Congress.
|
|
In
effect, the Capitol Hill circus has ignored an
intricate compromise crafted by the former US Ambassador, Richard Holbrooke,
under which the other 190 members agreed to accept the unilateral congressional
calculations, wink at a substantial amount of arrears, and to reduce the
percentage paid by the US in future from 33% to 27%.
Ted
Turner agreed to sweeten the deal for the General Assembly by paying off some of
the US arrears himself, but the clincher was the now-broken promise
from the US to pay off the arrears and to pay promptly in future.
But
Congress ratted on the deal, and has maintained a 25% cap on contributions, even
though the other members agreed to reduce the US assessment again from last
year, to 26%, which is why the US is again running up massive arrears - massive
that is to the UN.
In fact,
the sum that Congress is sitting on is the equivalent of two days of Pentagon
spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one-tenth of the amount of the UN
oil-for-food surplus that the US took for reconstruction in Iraq and
still cannot account for.
The US
general accounting office studied
UN peacekeeping and found it was one-eighth of the cost of using US forces -
even if one discounts the Pentagon being otherwise engaged at the moment,
surging and losing in Iraq.
Partly
at the urging of the same Congressional geniuses, the US has pushed the UN into
a massive expansion of peacekeepers in Lebanon, and wants an even bigger
expansion into Darfur, in addition to supporting new and renewed operations
ranging from Haiti to East Timor.
For an
interesting contrast in how American politicians look at foreign affairs, one
only has to contrast the total agreement of almost every presidential question
to contribute to the Jerusalem Post on their (favorable) attitude to Israel with
their almost equally total silence on the United Nations on which any successful
candidate will have to rely for dealing with foreign countries.
So far,
Joe Biden is the honourable (in this instance, at least) exception, who has
publicly called for the arrears to be paid.
It makes
diplomatic sense for a nation to honour its pledges, but sadly the other
candidates do not think it makes political sense to talk about it.
Presumably
they assume that it will get them few extra votes, while getting the assorted
America-firsters and Likudniks
on their case.
Since
the candidates now have half a year of trawling around pressing the flesh,
perhaps some of the more far-sighted voters can put them on the spot.
For more
background on the questions they could ask, the Better World Foundation is
attempting to stir up some interest.
Perhaps
voters could thank the UN for refusing to endorse the invasion of Iraq by
telling their representatives to pay up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
~~~~~
MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the
U.N., provides commentary and analysis from
leading world figures: King Abdullah II
(Jordan), HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein
(Jordan), Sir Brian Urquhart, Hans Blix, Amb.
Richard Holbrooke, Anwar Ibrahim, Bianca Jagger,
Dr. Nafis Sadik, Shashi Tharoor, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Noeleen Heyzer, Kerry
Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
(Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Susan Roosevelt
Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
Madarshahi, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
Jeffrey Laurenti, Rodney D. Smith, Ashley
Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MaximsNews Network® LLC is a Global News Network reaching over 30,000 in the International Community. It is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries.
MaximsNews®LLC is in partnership with the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund.
Established in 1999.
The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MaximsNews®
LLC.
MaximsNews.com
U.N. ® LLC News for the United Nations and the International Community -
www.MaximsNews.com
| MaximsNews@MaximsNews.com |
Please
contact us about Republishing:
Syndication@MaximsNews.com ©Copyrights 1999 - 2007, MaximsNews® LLC. All rights
reserved.
|
