US considers UN approval of force optional

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was recently reported as having participated in discussions on a possible US-organized standing international peacekeeping force outside the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations. The idea would need to overcome deep-seated scepticism within the US Army, which tends to view peacekeeping as a distraction from its real job of war fighting, and among other countries reluctant to participate in such operations outside the comforting umbrella of the United Nations and NATO.

Related Subject(s): Human Rights and Refugees