Wednesday, September 3, 2014

UN COMMAND

There has long been a valid reason that Americans won't fight under the command of others in other people's wars. This sorry story is largely part of the reason why we won't fight under other than our own commanders. Whenever people wonder why Americans are so adamant about declining to fight under French or UN command, this is why.
The Philippine military said Monday that a U.N. peacekeeping commander in the Golan Heights should be investigated for allegedly asking Filipino troops to surrender to Syrian rebels who had attacked and surrounded their camp. 
Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said he advised the 40 Filipino peacekeepers not to lay down their arms, and they defied the U.N. peacekeeping commander's order. Instead, they staged a daring escape from the Golan camp over the weekend, ending a tense, days long standoff. 
The disagreement is another blow to a U.N. peacekeeping mission that has been threatened by an escalation of violence in a buffer zone it has been guarding between Israel and Syria. A number of countries have withdrawn their troops from the peacekeeping force due to rising rebel attacks. 
Forty-five Fijian peacekeepers who surrendered their firearms to the rebels last week are still being held by the al-Qaida-linked insurgents.
Capturing and killing Fijians is not supposed to be easy.

One of the mandatory training films we watched after 9/11 was about UN and US efforts in Somalia during the unpleasantness after Desert Storm. It featured Marine General Anthony Zinni talking about what went sour in our efforts to bring some peace to the region. A part of the problem, according to Zinni, was that American troops have a special cachet that troops from no other country share.

American soldiers are perceived as a challenge to be engaged and therefore American forces tend to treat all unfriendly situations as "hostile" situations where many European or Fijian commanders would stand down and go in the bag if it meant reducing tensions because, historically, nobody really wants to kill UN peace keepers. They'll stretch a bit to kill any American, even American's in wheel chairs in order to make a political statement. Most will engage and kill any UN Peace forcers.

Kipling was right though when he spoke of being left on the plain with the jihadis and their women:
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
No American soldier should ever be forced by higher authority to surrender to muslims. Only a UN or muslim Commander would attempt to demand it of soldiers.

4 comments:

Buck said...

There aren't words sufficient to describe the loathing I have for the UN. That building on the East River in Noo Yawk should be re-purposed as condos and all the delegations send packing to some Third World country... IF those delegations choose to keep the organization intact.

Anonymous said...

I spent some time in Afghanistan in 03, our base was on the outskirts of Kabul and about a mile down the road was a UN compound, our trucks would roll out in convoy with a crowd of youths at the gate cheering us on. The kids all gave thumbs up and waved, they liked us and trusted us (if it was an act, they were good actors) sometimes our personnel would give out bottles of water, most times we just waved back and smiled. We would then drive down past the UN compound and see another group of kids at their gate. When their trucks rolled out the all of their kids yelled too, but none of them were smiling, most were hurling insults some were even giving the one fingered salute. So what was the difference between the two gates? My brothers and I were SF, which means we were deadly serious about the business of death, but we also went out of our way to treat people with respect. The kids saw the difference every day and knew who they could trust. My favorite saying is something these kids knew in their bones: "Your actions speak so loud I can't hear a word you are saying".
MSG Grumpy

HMS Defiant said...

The UN was a noble idea but it was set up to fail. Imagine, if we had let the Utopians run the place it would be more like the EU and thus a daily nightmare.

HMS Defiant said...

Yep that is the way it worked. I still think it's remarkable often the UN's offices are attacked and blown up all over the world. It's a pity that in most cases their organization, ethics and accounting follow the lowest common denominator and people who have never been out in the world have very little idea how poorly the vast majority of the people are treated by those in power. Americans think the rest of the world is just like Kansas or New York.