US Skips UN Peacekeeping, Finds Cash For More Bombs
The Bloomberg headline touts the 'Trump administration agree[ing] to pay about half its $1.4 billion' UN peacekeeping bill for 2025, leading to a quarter of troops and personnel being slashed. This fiscal prudence, however, stands in stark contrast to the bipartisan rush to send billions in military aid elsewhere. For instance, just recently, Congress approved a roughly $95 billion foreign aid
package, with over $14 billion earmarked for Israel’s ongoing military campaign (which the UN and international bodies are currently investigating for potential war crimes). One might wonder about the budgeting priorities here: cutting funding for global stability while simultaneously sending unprecedented weapons packages to a conflict zone. Is the UN's peacekeeping budget truly tight, or is it
just 'tight' when the peace isn't directly serving certain geopolitical interests? It appears some 'peace' — especially the kind that involves actual UN blue helmets preventing conflict — is considered less essential than enabling the 'security' operations of allies, however brutal. The question isn't whether the US can afford it, but what it chooses to afford.