America Is Not a Cow to Be Milked

After a long period of resistance, Congress has approved almost $1 billion to pay off the U.S. “debt” to the United Nations. But in an odd twist, the president--a strident critic of Congress’ reluctance on this issue--intends to veto the bill. He objects to a provision that would slightly expand the prohibition on U.S. money used to lobby for abortions. Why this acquiescence by Congress, which had good reasons to oppose the expenditure? And why Bill Clinton’s unwillingness to accept a minor compromise in exchange for the $1 billion?

Clearly, the defenders of the U.N. see themselves in a strong position. Consider the remarks U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made to an admiring Los Angeles World Affairs Council last week. Annan wondered why he was not received with such acclamation “in Washington . . . I mean, on Capitol Hill.” That was the first of two direct hits on Congress, mixed in with much praise of the president. And now, after this improper partisanship, Annan has been rewarded by his enemy, only to be thwarted by his friend.

According to Annan, the United States “owes” the United Nations between $750 million to $1.6 billion, and the U.N. is technically bankrupt. Pay up, he says. Don’t be a freeloader. People starving around the world are your responsibility. Keep your word. No representation without taxation. Be careful you do not lose your vote in the General Assembly.

This criticism stings, coming from the man who made Saddam Hussein cower. It stings yet more smartly because it is tied so nicely with the political position of the president against Congress.

As this is becoming a partisan issue, Americans should consider certain facts that the secretary-general omitted. The United States, which is the cornerstone of the United Nations, has always carried the largest burden. It pays 25% of the U.N.’s regular budget, and at least that much of the expensive peacekeeping budget. That is more than the rest of the members of the Security Council combined. Annan himself has said that half of the member nations are behind in their dues.

The United States has paid its regular dues on schedule for the past several years. The outstanding assessment stems mainly from peacekeeping operations. The U.S. also has made “voluntary contributions” of hundreds of millions of dollars annually to U.N. operations in recent years. If these amounts were counted toward U.S. dues, the United Nations would owe the U.S. almost $2.5 billion. The dues dispute concerns U.S., and other nations’ demands for reform of U.N. operations. Expenses run out of control. Graft and waste are rife. The organization never has been properly audited. Previous Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has said that the U.N. bureaucracy was the worst he had ever experienced. It is no surprise that the U.N. runs chronic deficits. Its chief method of coping with them is to borrow money.

At the L.A. World Affairs Council, Annan made no mention of making U.N. operations more efficient. He has, to his credit, undertaken the largest reform effort in U.N. history, but it is puny compared to the need. There still are no independent audits, staff members are paid like princes and basic accounting facts are hard to obtain. Without correcting this, the U.N. seeks by every means to gain a power of taxation independent of its member nations.

Congress has been censured by Annan because it resists this dangerous step. It also insists that more American money should be tied to substantial progress in eliminating waste and fraud. In this, Congress was only doing its duty.

Financial considerations are not even the worst problems with Annan and the U.N. The secretary-general’s own intervention in Iraq illustrates the importance of another point. When he traveled to Iraq, he had the only kind of help that a man like Saddam understands: In the waters off Iraq, the strongest Navy and Air Force in the world were poised for immediate attack. Those sailors and airmen, the carriers and the planes, were the representatives of the people of the United States. Americans have taken all the risks of death. American taxes have paid most of the costs of the operation. In 1998 so far, that cost amounts to $2 billion, much more than our reputed debt to the U.N.

The key to U.N. success is not in money, extracted from taxpayers it does not represent, or in bureaucracy, or in partisanship in American politics. The power of the peaceful countries, exercised by agreement with all, is the backbone of international security. The U.N. may well have a place in the difficult effort to control tyranny armed with modern weapons. To occupy that place, it must understand that its strength is found in a few nations of goodwill and power, above all the United States. We are not a cow to be milked or a horse to be ridden. We are the shield of freedom and safety.