By Kyle Monson
Don''t get me wrong. I''m not a member of the John 'The U.N. wants to take away your gun' Birch Society, not a screaming right-wing survivalist, not a warmonger. But it seems to me that U.S. involvement with the United Nations is starting to border on the silly, and maybe it''s time to take our ball and go home.
First of all, we''ve got the most expensive vote in history. The U.S. has one Security Council vote, one-fifteenth of all the votes on the Council. We supply approximately 30 percent of the U.N.''s budget - $400 million more than the second-place contributor, Japan - and much more in military support. Yet, we currently have as much say in shaping international policy as Angola, Cameroon, Chile and Bulgaria.
Our Security Council vote costs us billions - hundreds of millions more than any other nation - and more U.S. lives for peacekeeping efforts than any other nation. Our return for this enormous investment is one small voice in the endless squabbling of the Security Council, which would just as soon take our money and run.
United Nations membership dues are calculated based on the GDP of the member state compared to the world as a whole. American GDP is one-fourth of the total world GDP, so we pay 25 percent of the dues, plus an additional five percent for our permanent Security Council seat.
The logic, however, is flawed. Why should a nation that makes up a quarter of the world''s economy get one-fifteenth of the Security Council votes and one voice in the General Assembly? In return for the enormous role we play in the world economy, we give up sovereignty, money and the lives of U.S. military personnel deployed on U.N. peacekeeping missions - orchestrated by a Security Council in which we have one paltry vote.
The best possible outcome in Iraq has very little to do with Saddam himself. The best way for it all to transpire may actually come to pass if the Security Council fails to support U.S. military action in Iraq. America goes it alone and in the process finds loads of biological and chemical weapons, death camps and other of Saddam''s atrocities, effectively shutting-up 'Old Europe' and the Security Council in one fell swoop.
American occupation is brief but effective, ending in complete withdrawal, quieting Arabic warnings about U.S. imperialism. The outcome: Vindication for the U.S. and its intentions, a sigh of relief from the Arab world and a stern 'shame on you' to our Old-European allies.
I think it''s time to evaluate our contributions to a world organization that draws heavily on U.S. money and military power, but turns its back on us when we decide to take action on the United Nations'' own resolutions. If it''s up to the U.S. to enforce U.N. policy that it cannot or will not enforce, perhaps the U.N. would be more at home in Paris.