THERE’S a flare-up in Kosovo or on the streets of Sierra Leone. United
Nations peacekeepers arrive to find bullets flying. TV cameras are there too,
keeping a watchful eye. The blue berets don their gas masks and fire grenades of
“sleeping gas” at the opposing lines. Within an hour the dozing combatants are
separated. A bloody massacre has been averted.
This optimistic notion of warfare without bloodshed was raised last week by a
US Marine Corps colonel at a conference on non-lethal weapons. At first sight,
it’s hard to criticise. Order reigns. TV makes heroes of the peacekeepers.
Parents everywhere…
