COMMENT:  UN peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations are inherently threatening to the sanity of their commanders because they tend to have the wrong mandate, the wrong force structure, the wrong rules of engagement, zero useful intelligence (including combat charts at the 1:50 level), and all too little in the way of resources for actually transitioning to peace with stabilization and reconstruction endeavors.

The UN is actually beginning to succeed, despite its culture of corruption and entitlement and bureaucratic sloth.  If Ambassador Bolton can execute a "tough love" strategy of tying U.S. contributions to increased efficiency and focus, then the UN may be the one thing standing between the Western world and chaos.

We will mourn this officer.  Although we do not know him personally, we have decided to add him to our personal list of professional suicides.  He is #18.  In our view, his death should be considered to be combat-related.  May he rest in peace.