Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 13, 1994                   TAG: 9408050013
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VOLUNTEERS?

Does anyone believe that the world, absent a reconfiguration of will and resources, will be any better prepared to deal with future crises than it has been with the current ones?

A lot of hand-wringing and moralizing is going on about the world's obligations to Bosnians and Rwandans and Haitians. But many of them already are dead or tortured or homeless.

Surely, at the least, the world owes itself - and potential victims of future massacres - a concerted effort to prevent endless recurrence of such crises.

Of course, unless Americans aspire to be the world's policeman, and they shouldn't want to be what they can't be, an international strategy is required. Global cops are just one part of the answer, but an important part.

As things stand, the United Nations must start from a zero base of resources every time a new peace-keeping operation is approved. Then the secretary-general has to beg member states to fund the actions intended to implement Security Council resolutions.

All too often - Rwanda is a horrifying case in point - the international response comes too late.

Which is why it's past time to figure out that the United Nations needs the equivalent of a volunteer fire brigade: a quick-response military force for intervening in low-intensity conflicts before they rage out of control.

No way should it be a U.S. force, though Americans could volunteer for it. But getting it into place - with sufficient political, financial and logistical support, and with a unified command structure reporting to an enhanced military staff at the U.N. - will require a sustained show of American resolve and leadership. We could do that.

Or we can wait until after the next bloodletting.