merkur:

Your comments merely underscore the fundamental, intractable defect of the UN: the UN is accountable to no democratically established rule of law, and in fact merely serves to grant legitimacy to the oppressive governments of the very same countries that sponsor these rapacious “peacekeepers.” You suggest that somebody should

“propose measures that will actually have a positive impact on the lives of people in places like Sudan, rather than just more criticism that completely misses the point”

but the only solution you seem to hint at is that somehow, somebody should “go after” the countries (such as Bangladesh) that should be held to account.

Since you admit that the UN has no mandate for accountability, it seems you must be advocating one of the following options:

1. For the purpose of bringing rapacious “peacekeepers” to justice, democratic countries such as the U.S. should take unilateral action (presumably something more forceful than “writing to the government of Bangladesh”) against the lawless UN member states whose citizens commit rape under UN command.
2. Democratic countries should cede sovereignty to the UN to prosecute crimes committed by UN peacekeepers.

Regarding the first option, I doubt that anyone who, like you, supports the basic premise of the UN’s existence, would approve what the U.S. would have to do to clean up the corruption, incompetence, and outright brutality that infects so much of what the UN does. If it is the job of sovereign nations to correct other nations’ misdeeds, then why does the UN exist at all? It acts as an obstacle to that process rather than as a vehicle.

Regarding the second option, the one sensible thing you have said on this thread is that “none of us will accept a US soldier being tried by (for example) the government of Iraq.” Indeed – the U.S. should never allow its constitutional principles to be superseded by the powers of a body that plays host to Assad, Ahmedinejad, Kim, and other such parasitic vermin.

So, while you criticize those who “persistently blame the United Nations” for failing to correct crimes it is not authorized to prosecute (though you later admit that “the UN has not addressed [peacekeeper rape] sufficiently”), it is in fact you who are missing the much, much larger point: this problem is endemic to the whole concept of the United Nations. The UN is a sham body with enough political power to send armed men to the Sudan and direct their actions, but without any responsibility for what those armed men actually do when they get there. No amount of “reform” will change this, since the collective, Utopian principle on which the UN is founded is hopelessly flawed. At first blush, the notion of all people joining together for a great group hug of mutual understanding and security seems warm and fuzzy. But unless you want to end up robbed and blind, it’s best, in the first place, never to lie down with thieves and whores.