Army of Dog

In a shocking story sure to surprise everyone who hasn’t read a newspaper or passed by a television in twenty years, the U.N. is tripping over its own dick in the Sudan.

As Darfur smolders in the aftermath of a new government offensive, a long-sought peacekeeping force, expected to be the world’s largest, is in danger of failing even before it begins its mission because of bureaucratic delays, stonewalling by the Sudanese government and reluctance from troop-contributing countries to send peacekeeping forces into an active conflict.

“Just let us know when everyone is dead, and we’ll be happy to send some troops along.”

The force, which officially took over from an overstretched and exhausted African Union force in Darfur on Jan. 1, has just over 9,000 of an expected 26,000 soldiers and police officers, and will not fully deploy until the end of the year, United Nation officials said.

Even the troops that are in place, the old African Union force plus two other battalions, lack essential equipment - like sufficient armored personnel carriers and helicopters - to carry out even the most rudimentary of peacekeeping tasks. Some even had to buy their own paint to turn their green helmets United Nations blue, peacekeepers here said.

The peacekeepers’ work is more essential than ever. At least 30,000 people were displaced last month as the government and its allied militias fought to retake territory held by rebel groups fighting in the region, said United Nations human rights officials.

For weeks after the attacks, many of the displaced were hiding in the bush nearby or living in the open along the volatile border between Sudan and Chad, inaccessible to aid workers. Most wanted to return to their scorched villages and rebuild but did not feel safe from roaming bandits and militias.

Without getting into the root causes of violence in genocide in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is painfully obvious that the United Nations and its member organizations are impotent in the face of any serious threat to life and limb anywhere, much less a horror show like Darfur. Stories like this one should serve as a testament to the absurdity of the concept of “international consensus.” Listening to leftists in this country and around the world opine about the need to entrust more authority and power to these clowns would be hilarious if real people weren’t being slaughtered in the face of their incompetence.