Keep The UN Out

Donald Sensing explains why we absolutely must keep the UN's fingers out of Iraq:

How about a cursory look at the UN's record?

• Since 1999, when UN peacekeepers entered Bosnia,
  

  ... the number of institutions where women and girls are being [sexually] exploited has mushroomed from 18 to 200 in 2003, according to the report. Girls as young as 11 have been lured under false pretenses from places like Moldova, the Ukraine and Bulgaria to work in the sex trade.

• More sex troubles in Eritrea, where the government accuses the UN of "destabilizing the region" and a "string of offences ... including housing criminals, paedophilia, making pornography and even using the national currency as toilet paper."


• In Sierra Leone, site of the largest mission in the world (16,000 troops under UN command), women are so frequently raped by UN "peacekeepers" that Human Rights Watch issued a special report.
  

  "What is particularly shocking and appalling is that those people who ought to be there protecting the local population have actually become perpetrators," said Steve Crawshaw, the London director of Human Rights Watch. "It's also very disappointing that there seems to be a deep reluctance to investigate and prosecute these very serious crimes. To turn away from a problem like that is a terrible dereliction of duty."

And there's so much more (both at Sensing's blog and on the record). You all know my position on the UN (tear it down and, maybe, start over), but even if you dissent, surely, given the organization's track record, we can agree that the UN must have nothing at all to do with Iraqi reconstruction.
-- posted by Austin @ 11:18 PM (PermaLink/Comment) ¶