[My apologies. I misinterpreted what I read about this matter. So I am replacing the initial paragraphs with a correction. Those erroneous paragraphs are included at the end of the post. Mea maxima culpa. MB]
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced ebulliently on Sunday that the United States had negotiated a cut of $285 million in the U.N. operating budget, a 5.2 percent decrease over last year. Ninety percent of that cut had been established months ago, but it gave Haley a chance to toot her horn. The Trump regime, however, has been looking at much deeper than 5 percent cuts in the world body’s budget.
Colum Lynch reported at Foreign Policy last March:
State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources. [...]
U.S. officials in Washington and New York learned during the past week that they will be asked to find ways to cut spending on obligatory and voluntary U.N. programs by 50 to 60 percent from the International Organization Affairs Bureau’s account. State Department officials, for instance, were told that they should try to identify up to $1 billion in cuts in the U.N. peacekeeping budget, according to one source.
Under the U.N. Charter, the United States is responsible for 22 percent of the U.N. budget.
This latest cut isn’t the only one. In June, Haley announced $600 million had been lopped from U.N. peacekeeping missions. Instead of rising to $7.5 billion, the peacekeeping budget for 2018-2019 will remain barely above last year’s, which was $6.8 billion. The U.S. is the largest single contributor to these missions, 28.5 percent of the total. Thus the cut in the U.S. assessment for the year will be $171 million, a cut of 7.5 percent in its shared.
The total budget cuts for the 2018-2019 budget year are well short of a billion dollars, but there is no doubt they will have a huge impact on U.N. programs—and give the rest of the world more evidence of how little diplomacy matters to the Trump regime. A big reason for those cuts are so $54 billion extra dollars can be given to the Pentagon.
Ambassador Haley is getting a reputation as a tough-talking ambassador, bringing up memories for the right of the nascent neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick, who served as ambassador to the U.N. in Ronald Reagan’s administration. As part of her announcement Sunday:
“We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked,” Ms. Haley said. In future negotiations, she said, “you can be sure we’ll continue to look at ways to increase the U.N.’s efficiency while protecting our interests.”
Which was basically a reiteration of what she said last January the first time she made mention of “taking names” of nations who don’t toe the U.S. line.
Add to this Trump and Haley’s unprecedented threats to punish any nation that voted to condemn the White House decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the ancient city as Israel’s capital. That move was a sharp break from decades of U.S. policy in the region.
Haley sent a letter to each U.N. member in advance of that vote:
"As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the President and U.S. take this vote personally. The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us."
All 14 other members of the U.N. Security Council voted against the United States. And in the General Assembly, 128 nations voted to condemn the move, with only nine favoring the U.S. position on Jerusalem.
If Trump and Haley were serious about saving money by cutting portions of the U.S. foreign aid budget that should be cut, they would have plenty of choices: The U.S. provides billions in military aid and approves billions in weapons sales to dictatorships each year. The Saudis, for instance. In 2015, military agreements worth $7.1 billion and military sales of $2.75 billion went to Riyadh. But given the Trump regime’s approach to domestic spending, it is obvious that military aid to dictatorships won’t be what gets lopped.
A reminder for Ambassador Haley: You’re not the only one taking names.
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[These paragraphs that led off the original diary have been replaced by a correct version. MB]
People who think the United Nations is underfunded will find it disturbing that the Trump regime has trimmed its contribution to the world body’s operating budget by $285 million.
But those who think “black helicopters” and violations of American sovereignty whenever the U.N. comes to mind are surely disappointed that the U.S. contribution was not cut at least 50 percent, as was the plan eight months ago.
The cut U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley announced ebulliently on Sunday is only 24 percent of the $1.2 billion the U.S. contributes to the U.N. operating budget. Colum Lynch reported at Foreign Policy last March: