Illegals

[lhopp77]

Originally Posted by NeedForSpeed

No negative sarcasm intended, only frustration. Our military resources seem fully committed to the UN, and have been for my lifetime as well as yours.

Actually I disagree with this statement for the most part. Yes, definitely for appearances we have always tried to have UN approval and participation, but we would have gone ahead without it in most cases. Specifically, we would probably have been in Korea, but definitely in Vietnam and all the actions in our hemisphere without UN approval. You forget our past influence in the UN that frequently pushed it in the direction we wanted in the earlier years. During the cold war years we were always at odds with two UN members that also had/have veto power, so total UN support was never there.

I agree that there have been some UN missions that we really had no direct reason for participation, such as Bosnia. Also, don't forget that some "UN" actions were really NATO treaty actions and not really UN. Even our agreements under the SEATO treaty played a role in getting us involved in Vietnam. We were involved in Bosnia more for our NATO allies than for the UN. The UN peacekeeping forces have always been a joke with no power or will to really accomplish anything other than show the blue bands and helmets.

Just my humble opinion. Why couldn't I stay out of this one???

Lee