Sorry ja6345a, I find little credibility and ability with the UN, in fact, they are pretty much a joke and I intend no personal affront at all in making that statement. I'm not alone in this opinion, far from it. I saw a TV show last week about the most dangerous places on earth. The UN can't even control City Soleil, a large Haitian slum on the edge of Port-Au-Prince - they had abandoned an outpost somewhere inside the slum and retreated back to the edge and common street thugs still own the streets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020900902.html

This link tells about a raid the UN made in an attempt to capture a thug leader by the name of "Evens" - the UN purports him to be a cannibal. This character is even suspected of voodoo rituals in which cats are killed because Evens regards them as bad luck. He goes by the nickname of Little Knife because he carves the bodies of his victims.

Taken from the article, the words of the UN mission leader regarding this thug leader: "I don't want to kill him," the U.N. mission chief added. "I just want him to give up, surrender and face justice."

There ya' have it - the UN can't even take down a common cat killer. Without the will and ability to apply lethal force and having that as a component in any peace mission in this world of ours today, there can be no peacebuilding. Some readers here may have been on hand in Baghdad when the UN declined US security around their headquarters, wanting to project an image of peace in Iraq and a truck filled with explosive rammed the HQ, devastating it.