Okay, let me try and summarize the main points. Shit, this is hard.

Dallaire gave his own take on the post Cold War era. Before, either the superpowers were propping up developing nations so we didn't wind up entering WWIII over, say, a place like Tanzania, or the conflicts in these sub-states were overshadowed by the Western/Soviet clash. OK, that's nothing really new.

But once the Cold War ends, we leave these states to their own ends, resulting in an explosion of intra-state conflict that was previously simmering under the surface.

"We don't need you anymore."

Except now, the guys in charge of these states - Africa, I am looking your general direction - are really quite shrewd. They know how to work a diplomatic system Dallaire dismisses as passe' with his Quebecois accent, to keep it in a spin-cycle while they go about their business. These governments have learned to use civilians as "instruments of war" to acheive their means.

There are currently an estimated 640 million machine guns in the world, residue of - you guessed it - the good ol' days of the Cold War. These instruments could last for 800 years with very ittle maintenance.

More and more of this weaponry is winding up in the hands of children, coerced and drugged and traumatized into fighting in such-and-such a conflict by adults.

Today it is kids who are the killers.

As a "peacekeeping soldier," what the hell do you do about that? What do you do if you're protecting a civilian population sheltering themselves in a church, from an armed militia of 9- to 15-year-olds outside, and that child militia starts firing on you and your troops, then you look to your back and there's another group of kids firing on you too, only these kids are hiding behind pregnant women, using them as shields?

You have a nanosecond to decide: What the fuck do you do??

Dallaire cited the officially-reported 102,000 cases of suicides in the aftermath of Vietnam due to post-traumatic stress disorder. (The Deer Hunter, anyone?)

He predicted more to come from the current Iraq War.

He talked about "negotiating with the devil" (I think the title of his book is "Shaking Hands with the Devil") Of how conflict resolution isn't quite as simple as some would have it be. [coughgeorgebush]. Do you negotiate with very bad men, human rights abusers and the like, to save innocents? Today's peacekeeper - a term he would ban outright in favor of "conflict resolution" - is severely limited.

Dallaire touched upon wannabe do-gooders, a concept I sorta touched upon in my recent post-Hotel-Rwanda-viewing post. He talked about aid being sent to Rwandan refugees in the form of cow corn. This tough, jagged corn kernel needs to be broken down and mixed with water.

One problem: Refugees don't even have the basic infrastructure you and I would take for granted. They can't go down out of the hills to the rivers for the water because the women get raped, and even if they don't, the water's malaria-infested and filled with corpses. They don't have simple tools to mash the cow corn. So they eat it raw, until people notice the children with severe internal bleeding as the sharp, jagged corn kernels tear them apart from the inside.

(Whoops.)

He got into 9-11 a bit. 'Not tough to see where he stands on the Patriot Act. He talked about "how it's tempting to throw away the rules like the enemy has...but how far do you have to go to feel secure?"

He coined the acronym OOTM - "Other Options Than War" - and he doesn't mean it in some peacenick sorta way. He talked about the complex ethical and moral dilemmas facing soldiers on the ground in this era. It's no longer just a question of pulling the trigger.

(At least it shouldn't be, I would add...)

Rather, the soldier needs to develop "soft skills" - not just when to shoot, but how to commune with the people. A soldier need develop his/her "non-lethal" skills.

Basically, the guy acknowledged the unprecedented complexity inherent in today's global model. In that regard, Dallaire asks: "Is there a Genius in the House?"

"We need a statemsan or two."

(He got applause for that one.)

He later mentioned he thinks the "genius" could be "in our collectivity."

Then Dallaire touched on how international development needs to be just as primary of a focus in our attention and our spending as is our defense: how we need to solve all the fury we're encountering out of the Muslim world and soon, he predicted, the African world, at the source.

(And I don't think he meant bringing them democracy by the barrel of a gun or a smart-bomb.)

He talked about how the "Middle Powers," the collective alternative to the U.S. superpower, i.e. India, Europe, Brazil and the like, need to play a greater role and shoulder a greater load.

He hypothesized how these Middle Power forces, who did not condone or participate in the Iraq war, could have nonetheless entered Baghdad once the U.S. invasion was over. The presence of these troops instead of a U.S. occupying force could have mitigated much of anger and chaos and casualties and destruction we're seeing today. Not all, but perhaps a good amount.

As if the United States would let that happen...I dunno, I don't think I'm doing his point justice here. You just have to trust me: He had a much more compelling presentation.

In the end, he asserted the moral responsibility we wealthy developed countries have to intervene in moral crises such as Rwanda and the Sudan, regardless of national interet. How we need to work to make the U.N. something of an effective device in the world, rather than a forum of hot-air, and how the road to U.N. success runs through genuine U.S. participation.

By his numbers, 80 percent of the world population is currently regarded as something less than human.

But maybe I should stop. I'm really not doing this guy justice.

Anyways. Gen. Dallaire. Holy shit.