There are 16,000 troops there under the UN flag, holding back some of the most horrifying marauders of this or any age. They are fighting a radical group called the "Lord's Resistance Army", a group known for being sadistic even by African standards. The chief calling card of LRA is child stealing, children are taken as child soldiers and sex slaves. Thank God for the UN for fighting evil in the places we never notice, I can think of few situations where there were such clear examples of good vs. evil, civilization vs. savagery, right vs. wrong.
The UN is far from perfect to be sure but do you see anyone else stepping up? Here are some details on the LRA,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3462901.stm
Its the UN or the guys who do this, you decide, I'll pray for the blue helmets.
"The captive children are forced to take part in combat, carry heavy loads, act as personal servants to the rebels, and, in the case of girls, serve as "wives" to rebel commanders. The children undergo a brutal initiation into rebel life: they are forced to participate in acts of extreme violence, often being compelled to help beat or hack to death fellow child captives who have attempted to escape. The rebels march their child captives to rebel base camps in neighboring southern Sudan, and many children die of disease or starvation during the march.
Those children who survive the journey are given rudimentary military training, are armed, and then forced into combat against the Ugandan army and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). In combat, children are forced to the front line and beaten by their commanders if they retreat or take cover. "
http://hrw.org/english/docs/1997/09/18/uganda1528.htm
16,000 troops... How numerous are these LRA? How well-equipped? The fact is, "peace keeping" doesn't work. What works is utterly smashing these human traffickers, not "holding them at bay", but *decimating* them, if not outright destroying them. Sub-Saharan Africa will *never* be able to even sustain itself, let alone prosper, as long as the UN doesn't put an utter end to these penny-ante warlords, and their rag-tag bands of cutthroats.
You cannot do that, while simultaneously attempting kid-glove treatment. War isn't a game, it's a serious, dirty, *ugly* matter, which *must* be fought to *win*, not to stalemate...
the infowarrior