From this source:

Because Ivory Coast is in what France perceives to be its sphere of influence (they speak French in Abidjan, the Ivorian capital), France went to the U.N. and got a stamp of approval on something called "Operation Licorne" and brought the combatants together in the Marcoussis Accords, which called for the usual: The government sort of surrenders, the rebels are brought in, there's a transitional phase, then democracy rises like a chimney sweep from the ashes. To give the whole show some special effects and the ring of truth, they started spending a million euros a day.

That was a year ago. How are they doing?

According to the U.N.'s ReliefWeb, here's what happens when you put France at the hub of the wheel:

Social services and local government collapse. "Basic social services, schools, health services, agriculture, trade, everything's getting worse," Besida Tonwe of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told AFP.

Disease rises. "Illnesses that had been held in check are beginning to kill again and malnutrition, which was previously unthinkable in Ivory Coast, has reappeared."

Doctors vanish and hospitals close. "In the north and west about 80 percent of health services are said to be not functioning and four-fifths of staff had not returned to their posts one year after the crisis broke."

Epidemic diseases reemerge. "Measles, meningitis and cholera have reappeared."

600,000 people are displaced.

Refugees increase. 300,000 immigrant laborers flee the country. So do at least 50,000 Ivorians.

Schools fall into ruin. Schools are closed, looted, or overcrowded.

You get a bumper crop of orphans. The number of AIDS orphans is expected to rise from 420,000 to 720,000 next year.

But a famine in agriculture. "Agriculture and trade have likewise been hard hit with a slump in income, causing general impoverishment with all the predictable effects on nourishment and health of the population, say U.N. relief agencies, predicting a drop in next year's harvest."

All of that in only a year. In contrast, in half the time (and with no help from the UN), the US led forces have done the following (via Andrew Sullivan but also reported by the New York Times, believe it or not):

Six months ago there were no police on duty in Iraq.

· Today there are over 40,000 police on duty, nearly 7,000 here in Baghdad alone.

· Last night Coalition Forces and Iraqi police conducted 1,731 joint patrols.

· Today nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning.

· Today, for the first time in over a generation, the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

· On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts—exceeding the pre-war average.

· Today all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

· Many of you know that we announced our plan to rehabilitate one thousand schools by the time school started—well, by October 1 we had actually rehabbed over 1,500.

Six months ago teachers were paid as little as $5.33 per month.

· Today teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

· Today we have increased public health spending to over 26 times what it was under Saddam.

· Today all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

· Today doctors’ salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.

· Pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.

· Since liberation we have administered over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq’s many children.

There has also been a halt in summary executions except by the terrorists who hope the US will abandon the effort like we did in Somalia so they can put Saddam back into power.