Today is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. For those who don’t know, UN peacekeepers are the guys and gals who run into combat zones wearing blue helmets, driving white vehicles, and carrying only light weapons. I might consider that a pretty brave thing to do on a personal scale, but it’s a waste of money and manpower otherwise. In any situation where there is active combat going on, all these guys do is go in and act as on-the-ground witnesses to the carnage. Say it with me: You can’t keep a peace that isn’t there in the first place. From Sarajevo to Mogadishu, from Kinshasa to the Golan Heights, the boys in blue never fail to disappoint in their strict adherence to this formula:
- Show up
- Take bribes from both sides
- Look away if at all possible (See #2)
- Commit a few crimes against humanity of their own
- Get kidnapped
- Pay ransom
- Watch people get slaughtered before getting airlifted out
- Testify to the press and a UN tribunal about the horror of watching people get slaughtered and not doing anything to stop it but use polite language
- Write a book about it.
Here’s a hint – If you’re in a combat zone and there are guys in blue helmets running around, you’re free to do whatever, because no-one gives enough of a crap to actually send someone who is going to do something to stop you.
So I’m going to hoist a couple to the boys of the UNPROFOR, remember the people they failed to protect in Bosnia, and pray that we never have to see their like here at home.
DaddyBear’s Den 
Lazy Bike Commuter
/ May 29, 2013I recall somewhere about the UN commander who was in place to stop the Rwanda genocide, and said he needed a very small amount of additional troops to do so, but was ordered to pull out instead.
Another story was written by some US soldiers assigned to a UN peacekeeping force, and some of the foreign UN soldiers who had been there a while were explaining the various liberties they were able to take with the local women because of being UN peacekeepers. I don’t believe the foreign soldiers made it off the elevator uninjured in the story.
Yeah, the UN can pretty much suck it.
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daddybear71
/ May 29, 2013The web is full to the brim with stories of not only blue helmets but also just about every other kind of UN personnel abusing the locals and living like princes amidst squalor and suffering.
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Lazy Bike Commuter
/ May 29, 2013“UN peacekeeper abuse” gets an disturbing number of Google results. Ergh.
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Old NFO
/ May 29, 2013Every USN or Marine I knew that got stuck in a blue beanie absolutely HATED it… BS, ignorance, etc… You are on the money with this one DB!!!
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daddybear71
/ May 29, 2013Thanks. This one hits close to home for me. If the UN had actually enforced peace in the Balkans in 92 or 93, a lot of people wouldn’t have been killed or worse.
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