CompuServe Messages

That may well be, but to MY knowledge they haven't been in the same places, at the same time as we have. However, the examples you cite are flawed. Somalia was not, originally, a UN "peace-keeping" operation, but a unilateral US humanitarian one. AFTER we got there, the UN got involved, once they thought it was safe to stick us with the responsibility (and cost). The expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait was likewise not a UN operation, although for political reasons a UN mandate was obtained for the action. A coalition was not "needed" for military reasons, but for political ones. (Not to take anything at all away from the help we received from our allies, especially the British, but they weren't "needed".) That's not to say that we could do it easily by ourselves NOW, but we certainly could THEN. Frankly, I think the definitive statement on who's a minor power or not was given in Bosnia. A minor power is one who's Peace-Keeping forces can be taken hostage by one of the warring powers without fear of retaliation. Which was exactly my point. -Karl