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It should also be noted that U.S. Army Specialist Michael New, then based in

Europe, was ordered to report to the Macedonia operation and resisted, citing his oath,

the U.S. Constitution, and Army regulations. He refused to be "blue-helmeted." That is,

he refused to wear the blue UN beret or helmet, refused to put a UN shoulder patch on his

Army uniform, refused to carry a UN identity card, and refused to take orders from a

foreign UN commander. As a result, he was court martialed and given a bad-conduct

discharge. His case, however, continues to be argued in both the military and civilian

courts. Given the fact that the Macedonia mission is a Chapter VII rather than a Chapter

VI operation, New may very well have a sound legal argument.

The Bogus Blue Helmet-Green Helmet Distinction

As important as the New case is, the controversy may have served to distract

attention from another more critical fact--that a far greater number of "green-helmeted"

U.S. military personnel, who volunteered for service in the military of the United States,

are in fact being deployed on behalf of the United Nations. So-called green-helmeted per-

sonnel do not wear UN helmets, carry UN identity cards, or report to foreign UN

commanders. They are, however, deployed specifically to carry out UN Security Council

resolutions. Yet their costs are being paid by the Department of Defense--that is, by U.S.

taxpayers.

A March 1997 Pentagon document, far more detailed than the one insisting that

only 522 U.S. troops were serving the United Nations, stated that 68,790 U.S. forces

were actually involved in international peacekeeping activities.35 That figure includes U.S.

personnel in Macedonia (said to be 511 in that document) as well as 1,052 personnel

involved in "non-UN Peace Operations" in the Middle East and Latin America. It also

includes 67,200 troops "supporting enforcement" of UN Security Council resolutions in

Bosnia, Iraq, and Korea.

In other words, according to the Pentagon itself, there were approximately 68,000

green-helmeted U.S. troops serving the United Nations. The costs of those forces,

however, are being absorbed by the United States, not the United Nations, even though

the latter officially sanctions the activities of those troops and often dictates the specifics

of the mission.

The March 1997 document seems to be an accurate analysis, from the Pentagon's

own perspective, of how many U.S. troops are deployed worldwide on behalf of the

United Nations. And yet the administration continues to insist that the United Nations

should underwrite the costs of merely a few hundred troops, while Congress should

appropriate funds to pay for all the rest.

Restoring the Authority of Congress

It is apparently not the intention of Rep. Bartlett and his supporters to have the