Why a global army is the answer to a corrupt UN
Monday February 13 2006
That seems like a big ask, of course, as our society has divided into two groups - one which thinks we can never do anything right, while the other half (think of it as the Liveline section of our population) is obsessed with banging on about us being the greatest little nation in the world.
This was best illustrated a few months ago when one of the tools promoting the idea of us hosting the Olympics actually said with a straight face that: "The Irish are blessed around the world; sure all of Africa would vote for us."
Somewhere in between these two extremes lies the truth but one positive development, which should make us all feel a little proud, is the announcement from the Government that we will provide troops for the European Union's Rapid Reaction Force.
This has been mooted for some time, but has always become bogged down in the mire of European bureaucracy and in-fighting which has come to characterise the mess that is the EU.
But as we have seen so often in the past, a Rapid Reaction Force, available to be mobilised and at least nominally free of political interference once engaged, would have saved countless lives.
As John O'Shea - he would bristle at the suggestion but what a good President he would make in the future - said last Friday: "A military force is needed to protect millions of vulnerable people in Third World countries. It is absolutely right that the Government should offer the support of the Irish Army to such a force. Irish soldiers have a proud record of achievement in a number of peace-keeping operations over the years."
O'Shea is absolutely right on this issue, and whether it's our peacekeeping in places such as the Middle East and the Congo or the sterling diplomatic work carried out by Frank Aitken in the UN Assembly in the 1960s, we have a proud tradition of fighting above our weight when it comes to our input into global affairs.
But what is so welcome about the introduction of the EU RRF is that it will hopefully add another nail into the coffin of the most corrupt and counterproductive organisation currently known to mankind - the United Nations.
If one is to look at every humanitarian disaster of the last 30 years - at least - we can invariably see the wicked hand of the UN doing nothing to stop proceedings.
Of course, the dinner party liberals who bleat endlessly about the UN being the sole arbiter of international action tend to overlook this disgraced body's inaction.
But even in our recent times the value of a European Rapid Reaction Force over the UN is obvious.
It was the UN, under Dutch command, prompted by their bosses in New York, which allowed the modern-day charnel house that was Srebrenica to happen, for instance.
And the worst atrocityof our lifetime (for those too young to have an active memory of the Holocaust, that is), Rwanda, came asa direct result of theUN's cowardice and complicity with the Interahamwe.
The memory of the loathed Blue Hats of the UN is enough to have people spitting at their very mention from the Balkans to Africa and hopefully, if O'Shea is right, a lean, fit force unencumbered by the political infighting, stupidity, malice and cowardice which has riven the UN for decades could be the answer.
If not, we shall simply have to rely on an increasingly stretched and mismanaged American military to carry out operations which should never have been their business in the first place.
And we all know how that can work out.
