The U.S. government is sorely unprepared for a terrorist strike against all three of its branches.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are closely intertwined in the Iranian economy, complicating U.S. and European efforts to stop Iran's nuclear program.

The risks and pitfalls for the United States, and indeed for the United Nations itself, in pursuing these flawed and potentially dangerous policies have rightly attracted extensive Congressional attention during the Clinton Administration.

Although this brief survey of five current case studies of UN peacekeeping is necessarily summary in nature, I believe that the evidence forms a sufficient pattern to conclude that the UN is substantially overextended and in danger of becoming more so.

The UNis involved in conflicts, or is considering involvement, where it has neither the authority nor the competence to be effective, and its instinctive reaction to difficulties it has encountered has been simply to do more of the same.