As demands for United Nations peacekeeping operations pour in and the total cost heads toward $3 billion this year, Washington should ask pointedly whether they're all necessary and if some could not be ended.
To the United States, that's almost a billion-dollar question; we pay 30.4 percent of U.N. peacekeeping expenses.And the answer is obvious: A number of hoary U.N. missions could be wound up safely - if the world body could summon the wit to do so.
The oldest field operation is the U.N. Truce Supervisory Organization, set up in 1948 to monitor cease-fires along Israeli borders.
In its 45 years, UNTSO has cost $375 million. After three major wars, Israel's borders have changed markedly, and who today believes that the group's 219 employees are deterring Israel and, say, Jordan, from conflict?
In 1949, the U.N. Military Observer Group in India/Pakistan began to monitor the cease-fire in Jammu and Kashmir. Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan since have fought two bloody wars over the area. UNMOGIP's price tag is $77 million. Its 38 men could easily be retired.
The U.N. Force in Cyprus has been keeping ethnic Turks and Greeks apart on the eastern Mediterranean island since 1964. They have stubbornly refused to settle their differences at innumerable international conferences.
It is time to wind up UNFICYP, after spending $665 million, and send its 1,119 troops home. A useful message would go to the Cypriots: You've had three decades to resolve your quarrels. If you choose to fight again, it's your business.
The U.N. Disengagement Observer Force has been on the Golan Heights since 1974, separating Syrian and Israeli forces at a cost of $490 million. Syria and Israel are talking peace, and UNDOF's 1,120-man presence looks superfluous.
In 1978, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon established a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon. UNIFIL hasn't prevented Arab guerrilla attacks on Israel or an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Israel has set up its own security zone below UNIFIL's. The U.N. mission has cost $1.99 billion. Real money can be saved by disbanding its 5,233 personnel.
The U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara was to settle things between Morocco, which occupies the place, and Polisario guerrillas, who want independence. King Hassan II has sent in enough settlers to win any election. The 347-man mission ought to leave.
Since 1991, the U.N. Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission has been patrolling the buffer zone between the two countries. Without UNIKOM, Saddam Hussein would be making probing attacks along the border, so the $72-million, 334-member group is worthwhile.
By closing operations in countries where its work is obsolete or unappreciated by bloody-minded locals, the U.N. would free up funds for its worst headaches: Yugoslavia, a $634-million problem so far, and Somalia, where $1.5 billion has been spent.
Somalia is more a question of blood than money. The 28,000 peacekeepers from 33 countries are attempting to support cease-fires, protect aid deliveries and promote a political settlement. They are suffering mounting casualties at the hands of warlords' militiamen.
If the U.N. withdraws, Somalia will again sink into anarchy and starvation. Thus world leaders must ask a grim question: Which is worse, Somalis killing peacekeepers or Somalis killing each other? There seems to be no third way.