Over 100 mutilated bodies in ten days and there wasn’t
anything that could have been done about it. That was the brutal discovery
of the French peacekeepers in Bunia and Tchomia in the African nation of
Congo. The bodies were of refugees who were trying to flee the violence that
has plagued the country for years. This is a perfect example of the
impotency of the United Nations and their limited idea of mandated
peacekeeping. And they want us in Liberia.
The UN mandate limits the French peacekeeper’s role to defending the city,
or by our standards the village of Bunia amid the massacres of refugees in
areas just outside the mandated area. This isn’t the only French
peacekeeping force in Congo; this is an additional peacekeeping force inside
the country under the command of the European Union. Curiously, the
Congolese have not piled up any mutilated bodies at the French Embassy gates
unlike what is happening in Liberia.
Meanwhile,
the good Reverend Jesse Jackson has taken to his media pulpit preaching to
his political flock. He is pontificating that the reason President Bush
hasn’t sent our young men and women of the armed forces into action in
Liberia is directly related to the issue of race in America. With the
slaughters still fresh in the Congolese air we should look at that tragedy
and take heed in understanding the lesson that it could teach us whether the
good reverend likes it or not.
The Congo massacres spotlight the problem of intervening in African civil
war. Even with two separate peacekeeping forces in the country the slaughter
goes on. One has to ask why? One would have to ask whether the UN resolution
mandating the peacekeeping action was a poorly written mandate as was the
case in Iraq, whether the intervention was unwelcome but for one side of a
struggle between a nations people or whether there is another mass murderer
being allowed to remain in power by a counsel of dreamers whose solutions to
major problems seems to be mired in fantasy and too little too late.
We learned a very painful lesson as a nation when we stood witness to the
slaughter of our troops in Mogadishu. Heeding the call of the United Nations
once again to be the world’s muscle while they employed another poorly
thought out peacekeeping mandate, it became quite obvious that the warring
factions in Somalia did not welcome our existence there. Armed with rules of
engagement that wouldn’t even allow our troops to engage those who would
murder villagers trying to access humanitarian food shipments we stood idly
by witnessing the carnage while those under siege begged us to help. With
each death they learned to hate the Americans. That hate was effectively
placed onto Americans courtesy of the United Nations and their poorly
thought out mandate. To make that mistake again would be to have not learned
from a disaster experienced.
Perhaps we should insist that peace, or some semblance of it, actually be
attained before we assume the role of peacekeeper (what a novel idea –
peacekeepers keeping the peace instead of having to achieve the peace). It
would be more palatable to subject our young men and women to a situation
devoid of rag-tag rebels driving SUV’s and toting rocket propelled grenade
launchers than it would be to insert them into a situation where both sides
want to kill them because of who they are, no matter the reason of why they
are there, all to satisfy a UN mandate that won’t work due to its
limitations.
Either way, it looks as though the UN won’t be doing much of anything about
it until at least September 1st when the current mandate expires. Never mind
that hundreds more will probably die while the UN plods along on their
diplomatic track, talking out the mundane as they feast on the culinary
creations of New York’s eateries and exist among the beautiful people. They
are quite the humanitarian group, the United Nations Ambassadors. I am sure
they could explain it all to the families of those who were butchered
outside of Bunia…that is until one of the family members puts a machete
through one of their skulls for being an idiot!Frank Salvato
is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He
is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA,
OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His
pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on
The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad
Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the
Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The
Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and
international publications.
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