Lateefah Simon: “Sunday's New York Times has an article entitled ``Poll Finds American Support for Peacekeeping by U.N.,'' written by…”

“Sunday's New York Times has an article entitled ``Poll Finds American Support for Peacekeeping by U.N.,'' written by Barbara Crossette. It is a poll conducted of 1,204 people by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland and by the Independent Center for the Study of Policy Attitudes in Washington. Let me just read a couple of paragraphs: There was a general perception among those polled that about 40 percent of United Nations peacekeeping troops are American, and that this should be halved to 20 percent. In fact, 4 percent of peacekeepers are American. I do not know where the 4 percent figure in the Times comes from. The last figure I saw was as of March 6 and at that point, the United States was No. 20 in its contribution and less than 4 percent. Jordan, with 3 million people, was contributing more than twice as many peacekeepers as the United States with 250 million people. Nepal was ahead of us at that point. The article also says: Asked about the cost of the Federal budget of international peacekeeping, half of the sample in the poll gave a median estimate of 22 percent. Less than 1 percent of the military budget is actually spent on these operations . . . Mr. President, we do have a choice here, and that is whether we are going to work with those countries or whether we are not. To use the old overworked phrase, if the United States is not going to be the policeman of the world, we have to work with other countries.”