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What Is A “Peacekeeper?”

How the appeasement of Russia will continue

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The results of “peacekeeping” efforts in Rwanda. Image credit: Reuters

In the world of pure fantasy, a peacekeeping force is a third-party military group that stands between two or more murderously opposed groups in order to prevent the resurgence of former violence that, by some agreement or treaty, has temporarily been suspended. The idea, though not the reality, is that this third-party military group will protect civilians and provide the necessary conditions for the slow rebuilding of civic society.

In reality, so-called “peacekeeping” efforts almost invariably fail completely.

As the tired old pretense of a “peacekeeping” force is being raised once again, this time in the context of Ukraine, it’s worth understanding why failure is baked into the model so that we can be clear not only about its prospects for success but also about why such proposals are simply more blatant appeasement of unprovoked Russian imperial expansionist aggression.

And as Russian aggression in Ukraine comprises endless war crimes both against Ukrainian soldiers and, more often, against defenseless civilians, we ought to be clear-eyed about the consequences of handing Ukraine to Russian criminals despite the fact our own media prefers not to report such atrocities because it’s bad for ad revenues. Editors know Teddy and Jean-Franҫois don’t want to read about such things while they drink their coffee in the morning. But Russian targeting of civilians is a part of their model, as is concentration camps, rape, mutilation, and mass murder. So let’s not pretend otherwise even as our “leaders” dress up complete surrender as “saving lives.”

The first reason “peacekeeping” fails is because one or more of the belligerents sees no benefit in living up to their responsibilities under whatever agreement or cease-fire has been established. They see this pause merely as a way to build up their ability to strike against their enemies while those enemies may on occasion foolishly begin to let their own capacity for violence slightly diminish. As Russia is a master of exploiting such pauses, a pretend negotiated agreement that imposes a lull in the fighting would entirely benefit Russia.

The USA under the mindless creature Trump has already ceased all support of Ukraine; European leaders…

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Allan Milne Lees
Allan Milne Lees

Written by Allan Milne Lees

Anyone who enjoys my articles here on Medium may be interested in my books Why Democracy Failed and The Praying Ape, both available from Amazon.

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