The Iluminatti..next question?

UN Darfur Force Misconceived

London 9 June 2006

This week a prominent security analyst, speaking at an international conference on Africa, called the transition to a United Nations (UN) force in Darfur misconceived and potentially harmful.

"The truth is that with NATO support the African Union (AU) can effectively enforce the Darfur peace agreements, "said William Church, director of the Great Lakes Centre for Strategic Studies (GLCSS). "There is nothing inherently more effective about a UN force than an AU force. The issues are mandate, and then proper troop strength and resources to execute the mandate and not the color of the beret."

Church, speaking at a London-conference on Improving Governance and Enhancing Policymaking in Africa sponsored by Clifford Chance and the Centre for African Policy and Peace Strategy (CAPPS), rejected the current view that the AU and African countries are not capable peacekeeping partners.

According to a recent GLCSS report, Meeting UN Peacekeeping Needs and Lack of Elasticity, projected UN peacekeeping needs, including Darfur, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Cote d'Ivoire, could swell to nearly 90,000 from the 72,000 current, uniformed peacekeepers. In addition, GLCSS stresses that African countries already provide nearly half of the current 55,773 peacekeepers in Africa, and it has the most elasticity in terms available troop numbers.

"The ugly truth about peacekeeping is that nearly 70 percent of all current peacekeepers come from either Africa or South Asia," Church said, citing the figure that Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan provide over half of the worldwide peacekeepers, "and they are at full capacity with large forces in diverse locations like Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

GLCSS also notes the current relationship between the United States and Rwanda to support AMIS (AU force in Darfur) is a highly workable and immediately effective model. The GLCSS report calculated that African countries have significantly more soldiers available for peacekeeping than any other region. Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, and Angola have been cited as having a reserve of peacekeepers, and this does not include the already demonstrated capabilities of Rwanda to add to its peacekeeper numbers.

Finally, Church stressed that the push to transition the AU force to a UN force was potentially harmful because it hindered the relationship with the Sudan government, and it might cause the UN to prematurely withdraw UN forces from other locations like the DRC and Liberia.

It may be possible at time to reform a failed institution but it's always impossible to reform a den of theives and worse while leaving the same criminals in place. The U.N. must undergo a house cleaning from the top down or the U.S. should abandon it and move on. The success of NATO makes the failures of the U.N. look like a bumbling boy scout troop. Actually the difference between the U.N. and a Boy Scout troop is that the Boy Scout troops have adult leadership.

The UN is one of the most useles sucks of US taxpayer dollars out there.

I can't think of a single thing the UN does that some private organization or government coalition couldn't do better.

The Hatemongers opine.

According to the Times, Deputy Secretary Brown castigated "too much unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping" on the part of unsavory Americans. This, Mr. Brown feels, is hampering the effectiveness of the United Nations.

And to further expand your horizons, there is this:

As details of the U.N. Oil for Food scandal continue to drip forth, a new internal survey of U.N. employees provides further evidence that the organization is rife with corruption, scandal, unethical managers, crooked bureaucrats and shady deals.

As a part of the U.N.'s "Organization Integrity Survey," more than 6,000 U.N. employees -- roughly a third of the total U.N. staff -- returned questionnaires prepared by Deloitte Consulting in order to gauge staff perceptions of U.N. ethics. According to the questionnaires, many staffers believe that the organization is riddled with unethical behavior, rule-breaking and favoritism.

They also show concern that staffers who report such behavior are penalized while unethical managers are promoted and demonstrate a troubling "cover-up" culture.

So there it is in a block quote, aka a nutshell, that those who work in the UN and can answer a survey anonymously will unambiguously state that the UN is riddled with corruption.

The only reasonable argument that can be made in this case is blaming those answering the survey of believing their lying eyes.

Put them all on an airplane home, push the building into the river, and right the whole thing off as a good idea with a bad result.

Mornin' junpinjoe. You still visit Poli?

USMC Pilot,

Bingo, the UN was a good idea but the corruption destroyed it. Just by virtue of the Security Council not applying pressure on Iran is evidence of that.

As far as Poli, I checked in about twice after I left and see the traffic is way down. Too bad, it WAS a great site.

I do however like this wizbang place as a replacement. I think I'll stick around here for a while.

I'm off now to enjoy the Smoky Mountains. It's a beautiful day here in Gatlinburg.

Cheers............

hey USMC Pilot & Jumpinjoe...good Sunday mornin' to ya from the Left Coast! I miss Polipundit, but ya gotta move on sometime. back on topic...

The Dims and the slobbering LameStreamMedia have built the MYTH of the U.N., and that is what must be dismantled before we can kick the reality into the East River! It really IS a nice piece of real estate, and would probably fetch a billion dollars, at least, which could then be used to help re-construct the Twin Towers!

It cannot be reformed!

the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S. Period!

I don't think you can have an efficient government so far removed from the people. There are no checks and balances--no elections/no defeats for the people in the U.N. Thus, not much to fear. And the level of corruption in most of the member countries is massive.

The same fate may befall the E.U.

I don't think you can have an efficient government so far removed from the people.

Actually, the more removed from the people government is, the more efficient it can be.

But contrary to what many people seem to believe, efficient government is not a good thing.

At the Pace University graduation ceremony last year, he referred to America as an "ungainly giant."

What I suspect is afoot is that cockroaches such as Brown and Annan tolerate poorly the light of truth.

Consistent with liberal values is the implication that merely caring will bring about change.

The above quote reminds me that Condi Rice did not use the BC commencement for poltical purposes but Democrats seem always to abuse commencements with their own political agendas.

I too miss the action over at Poli, but had to draw the line at censorship. Hopefully we will find a home here. Too bad OakLeaf caved. I thought he would be the one to lead the exodus.

"According to the Times, Deputy Secretary Brown castigated "too much unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping" on the part of unsavory Americans. "

Unchecked? Just who does Brown propose to do this 'checking'? The U.N. is free to flap it's gums at us, it's just that nobody except the Lefties takes them seriously. U.S. citizens are free to 'correct' the U.N.-bashing, we just don't want to for the reasons I just stated above.
No, what Brown wants is for the U.S. government to 'check' this criticism; i.e. censorship.

Sorry, comrade. Not going to happen.

The U.N. is corrupt and it shows no signs of getting better, hence it deserves little respect.

USMC, speaking as Section Editor (a title I find virtually meaningless, for what that's worth), you and everyone else is welcome to make yourselves at home here. We're not always the most friendly environment, but we pride ourselves on our tolerance.

J.

Marvelous! This asshole insults us and deems to be doing us a favor with our money. Move the UN to the Congo or to some Islamic paradise. Today would be a good day to start the move.

As irritating as these idiotic statements from the UN are, I say let them keep making these pontifications from on high. Because when they do so, they give the right a gift that keeps on giving. We can continue to link the UN, the US media and liberals rather easily this way.

I love the one about Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. I'm sure both of them love it too. It's free advertising.

So who needs the whole rotten United Nations anyway after all some of the countries that belong to it are CUBA,CHINA,and others nation that violate the rights of thier citizens then demands we here in the USA finance everything and wonder why we dont want to pay them homage i say we should get ourselves out of the UN and get the UN out of america

Semper Fi and Hi to old posters from that single-issue-moron. This site seems more rational too.

I have had no faith in the un for decades. But koffi the can said the un needs a new building. Let's do it!

in Algeria....