It seems that there is an obvious need for some planetary law enforcement system, but I have no better idea than you do what would do the job without subjecting us all to the danger of a planetary totalitarian government. That's why I keep broaching the subject hoping for feedback.

What we have right now are, using the analogy of a small town, many homes with honest families making a living. But right next door we have crack houses, homes where the parents beat their children mercilessly, and homes where felons with a known history of shooting up other houses are accumulating automatic weapons.

In a real town, you'd call the cops, and the FBI. They'd go in and sort things out, ideally under the strict rule of objective laws and codes of police behavior.

We've got nothing like that. The U.N. is corrupt, and comprised of many of the criminal nations that are supposed to be the problem. Think a police force with Al Capone and his gang on the staff.

The U.S. and other nations going in and settling the hash of the tyrants is like some members of the town, on their own, forming a posse or vigilante group and taking out the bad guys. It is sometimes the only resort available, but this is an emergency measure, and not what you want on a permanent basis.

And without overriding objective laws, it is highly vulnerable to abuse. The world is fortunate that America is, by and large, a moral nation. Had the U.S.S.R. developed the A-bomb first years ago, the world would be a very different place. Did you know America, during the time we had a nuclear monopoly, wanted to subject it to international U.N. control? The process was squelched by the Soviet Union, which was feverishly developing its own weapons.

In all the old science fiction books and movies, an international police force seemed so simple. When "Wings Over The World" showed up on the scene in "Things to Come," everyone cheers. But were people trading a crude tyrant for a civilized one? Heinlein's future history had an international peace force, complete with orbital nuclear weapons (!!) Nothing was ever said about how they kept some goon from taking it over and ruling the Earth, although the short story "Requiem" seems to refer to such an attempt. Even Star Trek's Federation seems to have a slight stench of fascism about it, and they're about as politically-correct as an interstellar government can get.

Who watches the watchmen? Arguably the oldest question in the book that doesn't refer to women.

Any bright ideas anyone?