Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- April 3, 1998
Albright scoffs at critics' depiction of a 'sinister' U.N.
By Ben Barber
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright heaped scorn Thursday on critics of administration foreign policy who accuse the United Nations of being a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
"There are some who believe the U.N. is a sinister organization" with "a fleet of black helicopters which may, at any moment, swoop down into our back yards and steal our lawn furniture," Mrs. Albright said.
"They say it is bent on world domination, which is absurd, and that we cannot trust it because it is full of foreigners, which we really can't help," Mrs. Albright told a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Publishers.
Her remarks were the latest salvo in the battle that pits the internationalist Clinton administration against Republicans in Congress fighting to cut U.S. funding and involvement in U.N. peacekeeping and other operations.
Mrs. Albright accused Congress of "blackmail" for attaching pro-life issues opposed by President Clinton to a bill to pay about $1 billion in U.N. arrears owed by the United States.
"The U.N. is not an alien presence on U.S. soil," she told the editors. "It was made in America."
Mrs. Albright said it has become increasingly difficult for American diplomats to ask that foreign countries fulfill their commitments without hearing those countries ask, "When is America going to pay its U.N. bills?"
She drew the only applause during her speech when she said that "Congress should act now -- without regard to any unrelated issue --to pay our U.N. bills."
A spokesman for a prominent U.N. critic, Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon, New York Republican, said Mrs. Albright's appeal for U.S. funding of the United Nations should be reversed.
"Mr. Solomon would say it was a question of when the U.N. is going to give the American people and taxpayers credit we've earned through financing over $6 billion of military peacekeeping on their behalf from 1992 to 1995," spokesman Bill Teator said.
"The congressman is suspicious when an organization continually comes to the U.S. for help for military operations and finance but seems to continually want to downplay U.S. interests," he said.
As an example of the United Nations acting against U.S. interests, Mr. Teator cited "negotiating appeasement of [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein -- which the congressman feels was done by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan." Mr. Solomon said recently that Mr. Annan should be "horsewhipped."
Mrs. Albright said the U.N. intervention in Iraq was an example of correct partnership between U.S. military efforts and U.N. use of diplomacy to prevent conflict.
"This is the way it's supposed to work," she said.
She poked fun at critics "who cannot give the U.N. credit for anything," calling them "the black helicopter crowd."
Anti-U.N. extremists believe that the United Nations maintains a force of black helicopters that would be used to ferry assault troops. U.N. aircraft and military vehicles are painted white with black lettering.
"U.N. agencies are working to promote nuclear safeguards, punish genocide, prevent disease, protect children, provide early warning of hurricanes and preserve the rights of those who do business overseas," she said.
The cost to average Americans was "about equal to the price of a movie ticket," she said.
A movie ticket in the Washington area costs about $7.50.
She warned against "those drawn to the false security promised by protection, isolation and retreat."
Mrs. Albright told the editors that "we don't have to be the Mother Teresas everywhere, but our way way of life requires" that America be involved around the world.
She cited several challenges other than the U.N. funding issue that are at the top of her agenda in the coming months:
On Iraq, "the process of testing Iraq's commitments has only begun," she said, noting, "We will continue to enforce the no-fly and no-drive zones" established after the 1991 Gulf war to keep Saddam from attacking Iraqis opposed to him.
U.S. soldiers, ships and planes would remain in the Persian Gulf in force, she said.
In Bosnia, she said, the United States would continue efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, build the economy, punish war criminals, return refugees and support reconciliation.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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