• An Irish soldier in Eritrea has been gaoled for making pornographic movies, using local prostitutes as subjects. The force in Eritrea has seen Italian, Danish, and Slovak troops expelled for having sex with minors.
• In Somalia, members of the Canadian Airborne regiment beat a Somali man to death. Two soldiers were gaoled, and the regiment was disbanded after videos were uncovered that showed the troops undergoing extreme activities (such as eating feces and other cheery things) as part of their toughening-up process. Belgian newspapers showed photos of two Belgian paratroopers holding a young boy over a fire; three troops were tried but acquitted. Italy's paratroopers (what was with Somalia and airborne regiments?) allegedly tortured a naked Somali woman with electrodes and abused another woman.
• Rwanda was an utter mess that resulted in a breakdown for the Canadian general commanding, because of orders from New York to sit by and watch a genocide take place. The UN was sued for duplicity and incompetence; of handing over Tutsi families over to the Hutus, or even running away when the shite hit the fan. The genocide resulted in almost a million deaths, mostly of Tutsis.
• Ah, Bosnia. Let's see: over 20 peacekeepers were sent home over theft and corruption charges, almost four dozen other Smurfs were ejected for allegedly abusing mental patients at a hospital, and Canadian troops were accused of rape and beatings. Oh, and the sexual abuse of a teenaged handicapped girl.

Apparently, some of this is due to growing frustration within the ranks over the declining funding of the PKOs and increasing irrelevancy of the UN. Of course, the US has taken steps to ensure that the Smurfs never have to pay for what they do. Of course; that's just what Washington does.

I guess I'm just wondering how far the Peacekeeping programme has fallen. It was Canada's idea, and since its inception, Canada has had more of its soldiers killed while on Peacekeeping duty than anyone else, second only to India, which has one more fatality. But As the PKOs have begun to turn into more and more dirty dealings, Canada's contribution has fallen from being the #1 troop deployer, to somewhere in the range of 34th, largely because hey, we don't pay our Defence community enough to stay operational.

But it's starting to seem that even the good old days of PKOs have been for nothing good. This is not what Lester B Pearson was talking about when he made his famous speech in the UN about how he saw 'a new kind of force, a peacekeeping force,' and alladat yadda.