reply to post by Bunken Drum
I couldn't have put it better myself. Probably the most common misconception I've seen on this forum of the United Nations, aside from the above
idea that it is a government, is that they have some huge military that can subdue a country.
This is completely and totally false. The UN has no standing military at all, instead it must request to borrow forces from member nations under the
use of Peacekeeping Operations. These troops stay under military command of non-UN leaders also borrowed from the member nations (usually the one
sending the most troops).
The majority of Peacekeepers come from developing nations, and are not highly trained units. When the United Nations does need special forces and or
a higher-trained military presence they usually call upon the United States, Russia, Canada or a European nation to take care of it independent of the
blue-helmeted Peacekeepers.
The UN Peackeepers themselves are not usually deployed in frontline military operations (seriously the blue helmets would really be a bad idea in
those settings) instead they are to be local security, nation-building, intelligence and protection forces. Their job is not to fight a war, but to
secure a peace and transform it into a resolved conflict after a war has ended.
The idea that there will someday be blue-helmeted UN Peacekeepers forcibly imprisoning and subjugating the United States is laughable. First off, it
would take an army bigger than even that the USA currently has to accomplish this task, and second, the training alone would be such a massive
undertaking (in time, money, men and materials) that it could never be kept secret and would have to begin years in advance.
As of June 19th of this year, there are over 100,000 international troops involved in 18 conflict resolution, rebuilding and relief efforts around the
world under the banner of the UN Peacekeepers. The majority are currently from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Italy. The UN is also undertaking a
motion when requesting troops to add gender equality to the equation, as the current deployments are only 10% female. This inequality is intended to
be reduced with the request for female officers from South Africa, Nigeria, India and Ghana.