Keep Paying Our UN Dues
Don Kraus
Washington Times, Letter to the Editor
July 23, 2005

Regarding "Globotaxes" (Commentary, Tuesday): In 2001, a PEW survey revealed that 92 percent of Americans thought strengthening the United Nations should be a foreign policy objective. Yet somehow Frank J. Gaffney Jr. insidiously writes that "Most Americans have [concluded] that the United Nations has been a failure."

Of course, Mr. Gaffney is wrong.

Both former Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright and President Bush's Assistant Secretary of State Kim Holmes have underscored the United Nations' importance by saying that if the U.S. didn't have the United Nations, we would need to invent it.

Likewise, most Americans greatly value the role the United Nations plays in overseeing elections in Iraq, ensuring Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon, and administering peacekeeping missions internationally. Consequently, they want the United Nations reformed so it can be more effective in these tasks.

Withholding our dues to the United Nations is not a means to this reform. Rather, it will further America's isolation and make it harder for the United Nations to operate. The Bush administration, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns have all warned against it. If anything, Mr. Gaffney should be withheld payment until he gets his facts right.

Don Kraus is executive vice president of Citizens for Global Solutions.

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