Obligations at the U.N.
The United States has not met its financial obligation to the United Nations for this year. This is the same United Nations our President has spoken before often and just recently to seek an end to the war between Iran and Iraq.
While we want to use the United Nations as a convenience to spout lofty words, our actions tell us something else.
The Soviet Union recently announced that it will pay its share to the United Nations.
Once more, the Soviets have thrown the gauntlet to us testing whether we are sincere in our devotion to moral leadership of the “free world.”
The $1 million-plus per day we are spending in the Persian Gulf will just about total what we owe the United Nations by the time the 90-day deadline to Congress comes up.
Isn’t it time we put our money where our mouth is?
Strengthening an international body like the United Nations is one of our last hopes on this planet for achieving a form of law and cooperation that can save us from the foolish peril we face.
Let’s pay our debt and join together with other great powers to stop the bloodshed and many other abuses raging on this precious earth of ours. No one has come up with anything better and our time may be running out.
LILLIAN LASKIN
Los Angeles
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
