That's all nice and everything Conan but maybe you should fact-check that the saying of "Soldaten sind Mörder" comes from a publication in 1932. Given what occurred afterwards I really rest my case regarding that.

It's wrong to lay the blame at people who selflessly give their lives to serve their nation. Maybe you should look at how politicians use those armed forces, wars are not run by generals, they are instituted by politicians. For me it's up to the citizens to make sure that that path is only used in the most drastic conditions as outlined by calvados.

During the 1994 Rwanadan genocide the entire world could have intervened with a larger peace-keeping forces but who came forward? Canada sent one general, Belgium sent the only westernized force that is self sufficient, Bangladesh and Ghana committed some troops but the overall UN mission was small and could not stop the outbreak of violence, their force was just too small. Between April 6 and mid-July 1994, a genocide that is estimated to have left between 800,000 and 1,071,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of organized bands of militias unfolded. In the wake of the Rwandan Genocide, the United Nations and the international community in general drew severe criticism for its inaction.

Despite international news media coverage of the violence as it unfolded, most countries, including France, Belgium, and the United States, declined to intervene or speak out against the massacres. Only Belgium had asked for a strong UNAMIR mandate, but after the gruesome murder of the ten Belgian peacekeepers protecting the Prime Minister in early April, Belgium pulled out of the peacekeeping mission.

Mostly because most other countries sold arms to the Rwandans prior to the event.

Simply saying that armed forces and the people in them are stupid, mindless killers is a gross simplification of the reality we face in the world.

Furthermore it is good that armed forces exist, because only then can they be accountable for their actions, that is why there is the ROE document. If no armies existed that would give rise to private armies and mercenaries, that ARE NOT accountable for their actions, see PMC presence in Iraq.

yeah, i'm almost leaning towards agreement with Theo, but i'm very biased due to having a friend from South Africa, another friend who visits his family in Nigeria a lot, and a friend who spent a few months in Ghana recently.

it is true that we hear a lot about all the terrible and serious problems in Africa (AIDS, famine, war, genocide). Does that mean the average non-African entrepreneur thinks of the whole continent as being a dump with ruthless politicians and an uneducated workforce? I don't know.