John Spratt: “I think it bears pointing out that the United States is reimbursed by the United Nations for most direct DOD support to…”

“I think it bears pointing out that the United States is reimbursed by the United Nations for most direct DOD support to peacekeeping activities, such as when we provide equipment, when we provide airlift. We are paid for that. And when we are participants in a peacekeeping effort, we are reimbursed on the same basis as other countries which contribute troops to the peacekeeping. This amendment would take us much further along. It is really a unilateral decree that will allow us to charge the U.N. for missions that we have undertaken, allow the United States to offset against its share of peacekeeping operations the assessment delivered to us, what we have spent on U.N. endorsed but nevertheless not directly sponsored undertakings. There are dozens of different problems with this, but let me just highlight several. First of all, it would violate our legal obligations under the United Nations charter to pay our assessment in accordance with the rules that all countries who are parties to that charter follow. Great nations ought to keep their word. It is as simple as that. We should abide by the charter as long as we are a party to it. Second, this amendment, if we got away with it, would invite other countries to do the same, so the British and the French and the Italians and others who are now involved in enforcing the no-fly zone, say in Bosnia, they could do the same.”