Clinton a Weak Friend of U.N.

The United States is quick to assert its global reach by waging wars half a world away to enforce principles for which it stands. But it is shamefully slow in meeting its commitments to the United Nations, the only international organization capable of peaceful implementation of those principles. President Clinton was right when he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars Monday that the United States must meet its obligations, including those to the U.N., but he needs to do a lot more to defend the U.N. in Congress.

Washington’s relationship with the U.N. stands at its lowest point in years. A small but vociferous number of isolationists and abortion opponents have combined to block the payment of $1.6 billion that the administration owes the U.N. in unpaid dues. That has brought the organization to the brink of a financial crisis and raised protests by America’s best friends in Europe. Clinton, who portrays himself as a friend of the U.N., has done little to defend it.

Yet both he and his predecessor in the White House, George Bush, made good use of the U.N., especially in marshaling global support for the defense of America’s strategic interests. The U.N., for example, provided the imprimatur for Bush’s 1991 war against Iraq. The U.N. was there again in 1993 when Clinton needed cover for his botched military operation in Somalia, where 44 American soldiers lost their lives. Although Washington ignored the U.N. in leading NATO into the war in Kosovo--it feared a veto by Russia and China--it is now relying on the organization to bring peace to Kosovo.

A Senate bill introduced by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-S.C.), one of the most vocal critics of the U.N., would repay some of the overdue U.N. debt, but it contains conditions--many unacceptable to U.S. allies--increasing Washington’s control over the world body. In the House, Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), leader of an anti-abortion faction, threatened to block the payment of arrears if any of the funds would pay for family planning programs.

Clinton called the legislators’ attitude “boneheaded,” and he was right. But he too is responsible for Washington’s strained relations with the U.N. Until Monday’s appeal to the VFW, hardly a major policy speech, he had done little more than point a finger at Congress. As a believer in the U.N.’s role as an important instrument of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton has been a very weak advocate.