It is time to end UN peacekeeping operations in Cyprus, Lebanon and Congo

Bipartisan financial legitimacy does not apply to the United Nations. Too often, leftists view the UN as a way to pay tribute to the organization’s noble principles, without understanding the corruption and mismanagement that pervades it. Few large bureaucracies are immune to waste, fraud, and abuse, but the problem with the UN is that successive secretaries-general have preferred to use their perch for perks and travel rather than for management and reform.

While conservatives argue that the UN’s corruption runs too deep and that the United States should simply walk away, a nuanced approach could recognize and reinforce the UN’s success while ending its failure.

Consider peacekeeping: UN peacekeeping operations may be cost-effective compared to unilateral US deployments, but the UN’s record in this regard is mixed. UN missions have succeeded in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire, but other UN peacekeeping missions have been costly failures. In this case, Cyprus, Lebanon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo take the cake.

The UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) may seem like a bargain, with a budget of just $57 million a year. Sixty years after its creation and half a century after Turkey invaded and ethnically cleansed a third of the island, it is unclear what those funds are being used for. The threat of Turkish aggression is real, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not fear the peacekeepers. Just last year, Turkey broke the Rubicon by attacking UN forces in the buffer zone. Protecting Cyprus today requires a fighting force, not a helpless one. Secretary-General António Guterres would advance peace by withdrawing UNFICYP in favor of a European or American force capable of defending Cypriot territory and waters while giving Cyprus a deterrent capability to launch missiles deep into Turkey.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), meanwhile, costs nearly half a billion dollars a year. Before 2006, the world’s densest peacekeeping deployment repeatedly failed to report Hezbollah’s preparations for terrorist attacks for fear of angering the group, even as Hezbollah stole UNIFIL vehicles and uniforms to use in attacks against Israel. After the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN tasked UNIFIL with helping the Lebanese armed forces maintain a zone of about seven miles along Israel’s borders free of armed militias. Israel agreed to a ceasefire only after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that with its strengthened mandate, UNIFIL would prevent Hezbollah from rearming. She lied. Iran restored Hezbollah’s arsenal and UNIFIL turned a blind eye.

Today, UNIFIL is doing more to protect Hezbollah than to promote peace. Diplomats might worry, but if UNIFIL disbands, its demise could be the key to the success Beirut needs to assert its sovereignty. If not, UNIFIL’s withdrawal will prevent its personnel from becoming human shields for Hezbollah. Either way, the withdrawal would force diplomats to face reality.

The most expensive and counterproductive UN peacekeeping mission is the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). It combines the worst aspects of UNIFIL and UNRWA and costs the UN more than $1 billion a year. In 1994, when Rwanda liberated itself from those who committed the genocide against the Tutsi, the UN camps welcomed the genocidaires with open arms. Just as Palestinian terrorists took over the UNRWA camps, Hutu extremists have turned MONUSCO camps into incitement centers and armed training bases. MONUSCO is even worse. To visit a restaurant in eastern Congo is to see drunken MONUSCO members frolicking with prostitutes. Under the guise of supporting peace, MONUSCO also used its plans to facilitate the infiltration of genocidaires into Rwanda.

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It’s very simple. To accomplish its mission, MONUSCO must disarm the militants, move the camps away from the borders, and arrest those responsible for war crimes. If MONUSCO does not do this, it must cease its activities.

Guterres needs to understand that criticism does not threaten the UN or provoke war, but his own tolerance of corrupt agencies does. It is time to cut back, starting with Cyprus, Lebanon and Congo.

Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential magazine, director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.