Srebrenica, 1995:Dutch UN peacekeepers hand over Bosnian Muslim men, women and children to Serb forces with a demonstrated record of raping and murdering same.The Dutch later explained that their small force was insufficent to defend these civilians, and their UN status barred them from engaging in open hostilities. Fine. They are the ones who must live with the blood of thousands of dead civilians on their hands. What the blue-helmeted Dutch soldiers failed to recognize is that, for soldiers as for all of us, there sometimes comes a day when one must say, "This will not happen.I might die today, and it might happen anyway, but I cannot stay alive and allow this to happen."The massacre ironically brings peace to Bosnia when it shames the world into action and an armed NATO force moves in.
I don't mean to imply that it isn't valuable to work for peace; of course we must. But doesn't there come a point where we look at the history and admit that sending the UN is like announcing that the world actually doesn't care about peace in X region at all, but would the combatants mind keeping it down over there so we first-worlders can go on about our trading day with a clear conscience? RTWT.
