The The Toronto Star reports this week that “a group of academics, former officials and security experts are tabling a proposal [to create] an international rapid reaction force that could be deployed within 48 hours of a green light from the United Nations.”

This idea was first proposed shortly following a period of Hell on Earth known as the first half of 20th century. Half of the West was living in near third world conditions. Even the U.S. struggled with high illiteracy, disease, and the “last throes” of a Civil War. Yet there we were, suddenly the leader of the free world. But, for whatever reason, the idea of a United Nations Global Peace Force was quickly shelved and not seriously re-examined until 1994 in the aftermath of the 100 day Rwandan Genocide during which 1,000,000 people were murdered.

The force proposed this week would operate with Security Council authorization not just to deal with future genocides, but to engage in preemptive operations to quell armed conflicts, protect civilians, and address humanitarian needs.

The resistance against this type of force is strong. Some nations worry about a U.S./Western led interventionalist force, but here in the U.S. the reasons for opposing a standing United Nations military are entirely unique.

First, U.S. citizens will pay for it. The U.S. foots the bill for the majority of U.N. operations in general, and the costs of this global, rapid response force would be no different. According to the Toronto Star, the proposed Global Peace Force could cost $2 billion to establish. And while U.S. citizens recently donated a record $260 billion to charitable organizations, the media – the conservative media – would characterize this pittance as a handout to the malcontents of the world too lazy, poor, or stupid to take charge of their own destinies.

Which leads me to the second reason Americans oppose a Global Peace Force: it’s a God thing. This may come as a shock to many out there, but a large segment of the U.S. population believe that the establishment of such a body – or anything resembling a real world court for that matter – is tantamount to the end times. Literally.

Those people are idiots. Fortunately they’re starting to lose thier grip on our nation.

I say create the Global Peace Force, and the world court too. And while we’re at it, increase that budget by about 20 times. Shit, we just re-upped for Afghanistan and Iraq to the tune of $94.5 billion. It’s the ninth time this Administration has come to tax payers since 2003 and asked for “emergency” funding. Did they forget the two-front, generational war they’re waging? Again? We can afford $40 billion for the establishment of a Global Peace Force.

And since we’re putting up the bread, I doubt the Security Council members would mind if we defined the authority of this force as being constrained to upholding the United Nations Charter which in part reads:

We the peoples of the United Nations determined

- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom…

In short we can count on them – with Security Council approval – to take care of genocide, other religio-ethnic conflicts and natural disasters of biblical proportions.

And who should staff such a force? Volunteers. There are plenty of folks out there that want to serve a just and honorable cause. One that has the mandate of the people of the world. One that exists for the expressed purpose of making this world a better place for our children than it was for our parents.