UN Wants A Cut of U.S. GNP

The United Nations, which sat on its collective hands after the September 11 terrorist attacks, is exploiting the memory of more than 3,000 people who were brutally murdered that day to shakedown the United States for cold, hard cash.

Only six months later, the UN is trying to capitalize on the tragedy by rewriting history—suggesting those lives might have been saved had only the United States paid the price of protection. And what is that price? For starters, $70 billion.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is not satisfied with the $304 million the United States pays in UN dues—25% of the regular UN budget—and is not content with the $375 million Americans give to such UN programs as War Crimes Tribunals, the World Health Organization and the Universal Postal Union. It doesn’t matter to Annan that the United States contributes $500 million to the UN for peacekeeping costs, or that the Pentagon has spent upwards of $8 billion in recent years to fulfill peacekeeping duties worldwide.

His demand: The United States must turn over 0.7% of our gross national product—roughly $70 billion—to the UN Office of Development Assistance to ostensibly fight poverty around the world. And this is just the beginning—a minimum threshold as far as the UN is concerned.

Presumably, such payments will mollify terrorists to the point that they will stop flying planes into American buildings. Believe it or not, that was the message I encountered during the UN’s International Conference on Financing for Development, held March 18-22 in Monterrey, Mexico.

Everywhere in Monterrey you heard the money grubbers’ mantra: "Poverty = Terrorism." It was on posters, lapel buttons, fliers and in meeting rooms. The theme was reinforced in many of the speeches made by representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), finance ministers and heads of state.

Annan warned that "no one in this world can feel comfortable, or safe, while so many are suffering and deprived."

Jan Kavan, minister of foreign affairs for the Czech Republic, said that poverty and terrorism "share a common base," and that "extreme poverty . . . creates fertile soil . . . for terrorist behavior." James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank who is from the United States, declared that aid is an "insurance policy against terrorism." Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, instructed the conference that the world faces two choices: "poverty and . . . war" or "peace and prosperity."

S. I. Kolotukhin, deputy minister of finance for Russia, said Annan’s goal of getting 0.7% of U.S. GNP will be a "determining factor" for a world "free from terrorist threat." King Abdullah II of Jordan said, "For too long, deep pockets of poverty and desperation have served as breeding grounds for conflict and division."

Suggesting that poverty breeds terrorism is disingenuous at best. Hatred breeds terrorism. By all accounts, Osama bin Laden, who grew up in privileged circumstances as the son of a Saudi billionaire, is a very wealthy man—how else could he self-finance a global terrorist network and elude the world’s most powerful military and law enforcement agencies for over six months? If poverty caused terrorism, Saddam Hussein would be standing in line at a Baghdad soup kitchen. The terrorist FARC wreaks havoc in Colombia even though it controls a multi-billion drug-trafficking empire.

In Mexico, India, Africa and even Communist China, some of the most impoverished people in the world are more likely to live saintly lives than lives of terrorism. They are more likely to treasure Bibles than "Terrorism 101" manuals. To commit acts of terror like those perpetrated against the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, the USS Cole, and various American embassies, one must have evil in his heart and money in the bank.

That is why it was so disappointing to hear President Bush placate the delegates’ delusions when he said in Monterrey on March 22 that "we fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror." Helping the impoverished people of the world to lift themselves out of destitution is a noble and worthy goal. But it should not be undertaken for the wrong reasons. Only a week before his speech in Monterrey, at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., the President had made an accurate diagnosis. "Poverty does not cause terrorism," he said. "Being poor doesn’t make you a murderer. Most of the plotters of September 11 were raised in comfort."

Mr. Kilgannon is the executive director of Freedom Alliance, an educational and charitable foundation dedicated to preserving American sovereignty. He attended the U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico, from March 18-22.

How many tomahawks can you buy with 0.7% of the GNP?

How much rent do we charge the UN for those nifty offices and flag poles?

If poverty causes unhappiness, how about sticking about five grand in the pocket of every illegal we ship home
...then deduct that plus the cost of processing the return from the foreign aid we might have sent their masters?

Or, we could charge a few points tax on profits from foreign owned US businesses and ask them to send it direct to the UN
...see how much they'd collect that way!

How about we did (a), (c), and (d), then charged the UN 0.7% of our GNP to stay in NYC?

The United States must turn over 0.7% of our gross national product—roughly $70 billion—to the UN Office of Development Assistance to ostensibly fight poverty around the world.

Is this why "Ban All Guns" Bono was meeting w/ O'Neill and "W"? Oh nooooo!.He's GOT to repeal the estate tax FIRST (and that'll never happen)then Fix the INS,Deal w/ the repercussions of #42's intentional acts against America,just to start-----It seems to me there are MANY more important things than to give MORE money to Poor people,in poor countries, who don't like us.(Yes,I'm using a 'Paintbrush Statement' today)This is ridiculous.Tax This, Tax That,Tax This,Tax that----I've really had enough already.Now,Lets give MORE money away and to the U.N. no less? Please tell me this ISN'T what 'W' agreed to in Monterrey recently!!!Listen, those countries will NEVER get out of poverty until they MOVE.The U.S.A. has been Giving Trillions for Years and are they still a 3rd World Country? I say "Screw Guilt",don't let people throw guilt on you.I don't. (It makes a GREAT Bumper Sticker too).</Rant

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