Photo from U.N. DispatchFrom Reuters:
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeeping is headed for a crisis, with demand for blue helmets around the world skyrocketing, financial contributions dwindling and reserves of well-trained soldiers drying up.
The term peacekeeping cannot be found in the United Nations charter and yet the U.N. peacekeeping department has grown exponentially since its first mission in 1948. Its $7.1 billion dollar budget now dwarfs that of the U.N. secretariat itself.
But U.N. officials say even that budget is insufficient as the United Nations prepares for a mission to Somalia and to expand current missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic.
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My Comment: No one wants to spend the money. No one wants to dispatch their best troops to some far flung country that cannot get its act together. No one wants returning body bags of soldiers killed in war zones that have nothing to do with the country whose soldiers are getting killed. No one wants to get directly involved.