ABSTRACT
The United States is chronically behind in its payments to the UN; in late 1992, it owed some $415 million, including $120 million for peacekeeping missions. This reluctance on the part of the US government to carry its share of the peacekeeping burden contrasts sharply with the frequent media portrayal of the United States as the only country willing or able to help in humanitarian causes. Many in the relief community believed that while military intervention may have been necessary, it should have been done with a UN force, not by the United States acting virtually alone. Instead of waiting for the US government to lead the way, the media should have been reporting on all countries where food aid was urgently needed, including Sudan, Mozambique, and Liberia. The US responsibility for supporting and arming Siad Barre was seldom acknowledged by US mass media.
