Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
The UN has peacekeepers acting as a buffer in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel. Syrian rebels associated with Al Qaeda demanded UN troops from Fiji surrender, which they did. The Fijian troops were taken hostage.
Syrian rebels also demanded UN troops from the Philippines surrender, which they refused to do. The Syrian rebels attacked the Pilipinos, who retreated into Israel as Irish UN forces covered their retreat and Syrian government forces shelled the Syrian rebels to prevent pursuit.
The captured Fijians remain captured. The Pilipinos want an investigation into why the UN commander from India ordered Phillipino and Fijian peacekeepers to surrender to terrorists. Now the officer who refused to surrender to terrorists has been placed on leave.
And that’s the problem with the UN peacekeeping idea in general. Nobody cares if the other country’s guys get killed defending some worthless land in somebody else’s back yard. It isn’t our country so we’re not going to let our guys die for it. But if yours do, well, that’s okay.
Bad enough when it’s UN troops. Worse if it’s American troops. Let Israel off the leash and the problem will be solved in days, if not hours.
Joe Doakes
“Peace” is not always synonymous with “absence of shooting”.
The UN has no credibility. It is primarily a group of totalitarian rulers who have engaged in the same regulatory capture that we have experienced with agencies such as the Education Dept following the will of the teachers unions. This link really lays out how the UN has been co-opted into doing Hamas’ bidding by being in Gaza too long.
http://m.nationalreview.com/article/387022/un-clueless-or-complicit-gaza-claudia-rosett
If not associated with such dire consequences, a movie, probably starring Peter Sellers and/or Andy Kaufman, involving a snit between U.N. Fijian and Pakistani forces could be pretty good. Sort of The Mouse That Roared, Pt. 2, or maybe prequel?
Of course for reasons of political sensibilities (correctness) as well as mortality, it would have had to have been made 30+ years ago …