Where it's done well, peace-keeping works. East Timor, external troops had a real effect. Sierra Leone absolutely *loved* their Brit peacekeepers who kicked ass and turned the country around.

Where it's done badly though, and the soldiers aren't armed well enough or provided with the political backing to *be* soldiers, it goes very pear-shaped. Bosnia was the classic example of that - for all that the Northern Irish may (validly) complain, the British Army is the best in the world at peacekeeping actions, but Michael Rose and co were ordered not to fire a shot to defend anyone, which kind of screws up the point of the exercise. Another great example was Somalia, where the US Army got their arses kicked big-style because (a) they couldn't connect with the people,(b) they couldn't fight in towns, and (c) they didn't care enough to stay and finish the job when things got bad.

Graham.