News sources are reporting that Canada intends to send 150 military personnel to help the AU in a peacekeeping mission in Sudan.
They will also be lending some old equipment for the African troops to use (god knows we have plenty of that lying around).
150 doesn’t seem like much… but at least it’s something. And it’s an important signal to the UN that it is possible to fulfill the Responsibility to Protect using truly multilateral, UN sanctioned action without getting stalled in UNSC.
Chris, do you think that the UN gets “signals”? The UN seems oblivious even to being hit between the eyes with the proverbial two-by-four. Your faith in the UN is childlike. It’s interesting to contrast your willingness to give the UN time to get signals (while villages are being slaughtered and refugees raped and starved to death) with the intense outrage you feel towards the American military in Iraq. You believe the best of the UN and you believe the worst of the US. Difficult to fathom the depth of your bias.
I am glad that Canada is sending help. Just wish it were more significant and copied by other western nations including my own.
My outrage stems from the fact that George Bush basically decided to invade a sovereign country and explain it later…. with no regard to how to manage the aftermath or thought as to how to involve the International Community.
It’s especially poignant on this, the 60th anniversary of VE day. We were supposed to have left the days of unilateral invasions and occupation behind us.
He’s a disgrace and an outrage Jane… he’s a warmongering, selfish fool.
If he had any concept of the horrors of war he would have shown the restraint and reluctance that even his father, his own mistakes not withstanding, exhibited.
….
I’m sorry… it just really makes me angry when people try to justify the unjustifiable. Uniltareral action is not an option. There is absolutely no reason in this day and age to invade a country without the resources made available through the 100+ countries in the UN. My faith is not in the UN, but rather in Multilateralism. REAL multilateralism, where the burden as well as the reward is shared. Not this fake “coalition building” where countries are bought against the will of their citizenry.
Yes, the UN, is deeply flawed. But it’s all we got. If George Bush and Tony Blair put as much energy into reforming the UN as they did into turning Iraq into a warzone then maybe some progress would actually be made.
It’s really not the UNs’ fault because the UN is simply a gathering of politicians. If each member on the UNSC wasn’t so wrapped up in its’ own affairs and actually dealt with the issue instead of the “interests” then the UN might actually have a chance at working. Everyone complains about how the UN is so screwed up.. but in reality the UN works just fine, it’s the bloody selfish “interests” of the countries involved that make the UN impossible.
Unfortunately, the only way that’s ever going to change is for the politicians involve to change. I don’t see that happening… at least not very fast.
The only way I see the UN changing… *really* changing, is if the world community actually made its’ voice heard and pushed it’s leaders to take action.
The UNs goal is the betterment of all mankind, not the betterment of countries. So it is up to us, the citizens to take action if we want there to be change.
We need to make it clear to our own politicians that we want change. Frankly I don’t really care what that change is.. as long as it’s change for the better and that there is an *effort*… no more reports, no more inquiries…. just DO it for god sake!
I do not believe the best in the UN. The UN in its’ current form is crap. Actually.. we’re not really talking about the entire UN, we’re talking about the UNSC. And we’re not even really talking about the UNSC.. we’re talking about Five countries… Russia, France, Britain, China and the United States.
These five countries are collectively representative and responsible for everything that is wrong with the UN. They are the reason nothing changes and they are the reason nothing gets done.
…..
Yikes.. two rants in a row.
God.. what was I talking about?? lol
Oh ya, at least with this meager contrbution Canada is showing that it is willing to take the initiative and use what the UNSC has already managedto agree on to actually make its’ own contribution. The UN should be supporting the AU completely rather than just giving it limited mandates… instead, it’s too busy bickering about the ICC.
The UN is FUBAR… but again, it’s all we’ve got. So we have to fix it. I know it can be done. We just have to convince our own politicians that it’s in their INTERESTS to do so.