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Kerry Spot [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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U.N. PEACEKEEPERS GET INTO THE PEDOPHILIA BUSINESS
It's easy and tempting to declare that those who disagree with you ignorant. And it's almost always wrong. There are a lot of smart people in this world who disagree with me all the time (COUGHmrskerryspotCOUGH).
But when you see something like this, you wonder how anyone, who is reasonably well-informed, can argue in good faith that the United Nations is force for order, peace, human rights, and all that is good in the world:
The 34-page report, which was obtained by The Washington Post, accuses U.N. peacekeepers from Morocco, Pakistan and Nepal of seeking to obstruct U.N. efforts to investigate a sexual abuse scandal that has damaged the United Nations' standing in Congo.
The report documents 68 cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia by U.N. peacekeepers from Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Nepal. U.N. officials say they have uncovered more than 150 allegations of sexual misconduct throughout the country as part of a widening investigation into sexual abuse by U.N. personnel that has plagued the United Nations' largest peacekeeping mission, U.N. officials said.
"Sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly prostitution of minors, is widespread and long-standing," says a draft of the internal July report, which has not previously been made public. "Moreover, all of the major contingents appear to be implicated."
Are the U.N.'s defenders just not aware of these things? Do they think these scandals are just... small potatoes, and not that consequential in the big picture? Or do they really not care, and believe that no matter how much kiddie rape is going on under the U.N.'s supervision, that the Abu Ghraib scandal will always be worse, and that the blue-helmet types will always be morally superior?
I can understand the arguments with U.S. military operations overseas. I can understand the arguments in favor of building coalitions and greater cooperation from other countries.
But I can't understand how anybody can look the U.N. and not see a moral cesspool.
[Posted 12/16 11:12 AM]
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