Re: What about the UN? - Longish

At 18:58 26/07/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Beth Fulton wrote:
>...Snip...JTL
>"Australian
>> Freedom Scouts" and "One Nation" political party proved beyond doubt
that
>> we have our own gun-happy paranoid xenophobes to be concerned with
(it
>> ain't so funny anymore).
>> 
>> Have fun,
>> 
>> Beth
>
>Beth and All of Oz,
>     Congrats on the win in the 'Tour De'France'.
>
>Now back to mainstream of the evenings discussion:
>
>The main difference between your radicals and ours is simple.
>Your radical lefties are better armed than the public, and 
>ours are not.
>
>Just a thought, :-)
>
>Bye for now,
>John L.
>
>

Reminds me of a comment by a 7 year old immigrant from El Salvador when
asked what the main difference was between El Salvador and America.  "In
El
Salvador they shoot you with big guns but here they shoot you with
smaller
guns".

Back to the UN though.	I've often thought its a pity the UN doesn't
have
covert ops sections, perhaps then it might be a bit more able to acheive
its goals.

I have to disagree with Noahs view of the UN as an actual power in its
own
right.	I very much doubt it would have any actual planets that it
controlled apart from perhaps being the onyl significant power willing
to
patrol certain regions.  It seems more likely that it would be organised
like a Megacorp with an income provided by the various powers but only
to
patrol in the core systems.  As such it may not have that many ships
compared to the major powers but what it does have is pure quality.   
It
might not be able to stop a major power all by itself but it could
certainly hurt it badly enough that the aggressor might be made
vulnerable
to other powers.  The UN's role wouldn't be to expand its power base but
to
simply keep the status quo.  

There was an article in the Sfsfw magazine Ragnarok about the UN
spaceforces a couple of isues ago.  I'll see if I can find it and see
what
it had to say.
--------------------
Niall Gilsenan,
DIT Cathal Brugha St,
Dublin 1,
Ireland.
--------------------
The miscellany (Sci-Fi combat games)
http://members.tripod.com/~Cwintel/Scifi.html