I'm sure there are plenty of good people walking the halls of the UN. One of the brightest fellows I've ever met ended up working for the UN as an election observer. He did the job to the best of his formidable abilities, I'm sure, but he was part of a chronically understaffed, underequipped, underappreciated group. He spent a huge amount of his time trying not to get killed, or at the very least to not alienate the suspicious chieftans and thereby make himself useless. In Bosnia he often found himself a liason between the Blue Helmets and the locals.

I know that, as an American, I'm supposed to dislike and distrust the UN, but I can't bring myself to. It's part of a grand idea, quite possibly too grand for the human animal to achieve at present--dialogue, decency and respect among nations. Doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire, though.