It's veterans day here in the United States. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America chose this day to launch a new social networking site for veterans, Community of Veterans.
Jeet Heer has more on the origins of Veterans Day.
The UN's second-highest peacekeeping official pens a letter to the editor in The Washington Post, responding to critics of the overwhelmed, undermanned, under-resourced, and under-appreciated mission in eastern Congo.
MONUC forces are patrolling, holding access routes to the provincial capital of Goma and maintaining the fragile peace there. It is the only force actively contributing to the protection of the vulnerable and helping to make a difference where it matters most. However, with barely one peacekeeper for every 10,000 civilians in eastern Congo, MONUC cannot be everywhere at once. Its troops are spread thin throughout the country; moving large numbers of them would destabilize other volatile regions. This is why we have called on the international community to reinforce the mission immediately. We need the right tools if we are to succeed in the difficult days ahead. Without the U.N. force, the situation in North Kivu would have been far worse. Without the blue U.N. helmets and U.N. expertise, Congo could not have emerged from the horrors of its brutal civil wars to hold its first national elections in half a century. U.N. peacekeeping is an imperfect instrument, but where would Congo and indeed Africa as a whole be without it? [emphasis mine]UN troops cannot indeed be "behind every tree," and Mulet raises a good point about the counter-factual difficulty of realizing the benefits of having UN peacekeepers behind at least some of those trees. Check out this RI bulletin that I flagged earlier for more on what the mission is doing -- and what needs to be done to support it.
Anne Bayefsky's caricature of the UN in The National Review would be offensive if it weren't so laughable.
The U.N. is an uncomplicated place. Every sick, unsatiated tyrant, European has-been, or miserable wretch brainwashed about the Great Satan wants to take America down - unless they are able to immigrate of course. Their modus operandi? The United Nations.So...everyone at the UN hates the U.S. so much that they either want to destroy it, or...become a citizen? Besides insulting the fairly significant contingent of non-brainwashed, America-hating, "washed-up" Member States in the UN, Bayefsky makes some astonishingly spurious claims about Barack Obama's agenda for U.S.-UN relations, groundlessly accusing him of already planning to "put Israel on the chopping block" and "agree to some form of global taxation" (see here and here for indications that Obama's actual policies on these respective issues could not be more opposite). These are only the two most ludicrous of a number of other nefarious positions that Bayefsky plants on the incoming administration and which it has in no way voiced support for. Needless to say, the UN is a complicated place. It is the only forum at which representatives from all countries can voice their concerns, pursue their interests, and -- ideally, of course -- work together. Naturally, there is a fair share of bad actors who use its platform as a bully pulpit, but it is also the only mechanism through which the weight of the entire international community can -- legitimately, concertedly, and most effectively -- be leveraged to address transcendent global issues, from climate change to extreme poverty, counter-terrorism to peace in the Middle East. This is simply far too expansive an organization to be boiled down as "uncomplicated."
South African singer, long-time anti-apartheid activist, and UN Food and Agriculture Organization Goodwill Ambassador Miriam Makeba died this morning at the age of 76.
A fitting epitaph:
"I just told the world the truth, and if the truth then becomes political, I can't do anything about that."And a video of her performing her most famous song, Pata-Pata, in 1979.
Via Kevin Drum and Brian Beutler, the Maldives is looking to purchase land should global warming cause sea levels to rise and erase the tiny Island-state from the face of the earth.
The president, a human rights activist who swept to power in elections last month after ousting Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the man who once imprisoned him, said he had already broached the idea with a number of countries and found them to be "receptive". He said Sri Lanka and India were targets because they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land available. "We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades," he said.For more on the consequences of climate change to small island states check out this video from Go Green Tube.
Not only has Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda threatened UN peacekeepers, but he also issued a strong warning to potential troop contributors from neighboring countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
[S]peaking to Reuters by telephone from eastern Congo, [Nkunda] added: "If they come in and fight alongside the [Democratic Republic of Congo government] and the [Rwandan Hutu rebels] ... they will share the same shame as the DRC government.." "If SADC engages like this, they will have made a mistake ... I am ready to fight them," Nkunda said.Nkunda's bluster should not be countenanced, of course, but he does hit upon a major blunder in the international response to Congo's increasing collapse. As this Refugees International bulletin makes clear, the international community's long-standing policy of allowing -- indeed, even mandating -- peacekeeping forces to assist the notoriously corrupt and rights-abusing Congolese army has generated a contradiction that is only accelerating the spriral of this conflict. More peacekeepers are desperately needed -- and at least one observer is very upset that the UK has blocked the rapid deployment of a supplementary EU force -- but their role must be one of civilian protection, complemented by a vigorous commitment to political peacemaking.
The Financial Times uncovers evidence that Congolese rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda are deliberately trying to intimidate the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo and hasten its departure.
In a letter to the UN dated October 27, two days before his forces threatened to overrun the eastern city of Goma, Gen Nkunda warned he could not guarantee peacekeepers' safety. "In the current circumstances in which our forces are directly confronting the government coalition, we cannot be held...accountable for the security of Monuc forces present on the front," according to the letter, which was made available to the Financial Times by another UN official who requested anonymity. The letter followed a telephone threat by one of Gen Nkunda's commanders to kill Indian peacekeeping troops if the force scrambled attack helicopters to support Congolese government forces.Meanwhile, a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels earlier today reached a consensus of sorts that the EU would not send reinforcements anytime soon. It is "out of the question," said the German Defense minister. The UK's David Milliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner agreed. So much for a new Operation Artemis style mission. Despite the peacekeeping mission's calls for reinforcements and international aid, nothing seems to be forthcoming. The situation continues to fester. (Photo from Flickr.)
The International Year of the Potato rolls on. All year, the UN has been promoting the potato's potential to alleviate hunger and poverty worldwide, and now, the UN Economic Commission for Europe has unveiled a new cookbook, titled "The Potato: Around the Globe in 200 Recipes."
From "Boranie Katschalu" in Afghanistan (fried potatoes, cheese, garlic and mint) to a chicken, veal, potato and banana stew from Venezuela ("Sancocho"), the book shows the versatility of the vegetable and what can be done with a bit of imagination. It's the world's fourth most important food after maize, wheat and rice, and it's also good for you, rich in carbohydrates, potassium and Vitamin C.I think I know what I'm having for dinner tonight. For more on the history and global impact of the noble spud, check out this great video.
At about one minute in, Congo peacekeeping chief Alan Doss complains that he has no choice but to move peacekeepers out of areas where they are needed to areas where they are needed even more. Meanwhile, this video shows how the conflict is spreading to Uganda and Sudan.