To ask the question why Trump-era disruptive peace-manhandling has replaced United Nations peacekeeping operations basically answers the question, with a little useful give and take.

Bottom Line Honest Answer: For some 65 years, U.N. peacekeeping adventures have, at best, slowed the bloodletting.

As a soldier, I know that eventually rates as a meritorious accomplishment. Fewer dead and maimed human beings really does matter.

Unless the killing never quite stops.

That noted, tough-minded and informed peacekeeping critics can make strong cases that U.N. peacekeeping ops (despite media hoopla) have never delivered a sustained peace anywhere.

OK, we can debate Korea. Special case. The Korean War wasn't a peacekeeping operation, it was an America with allies war waving a U.N. flag. The sustained peace is an armistice constantly threatened by North Korean nukes.

But. North Korean nukes are countered by U.S. nukes, B-52s, aircraft carriers, South Korean military excellence, Japanese strike systems, etc.

These facts noted, honest U.N. peacekeeping advocates can respond with this: U.N. peace ops entered anarchic hells where there was no peace to keep. "Peacekeeping" was media sop for NPR and BBC blatherers. Armed U.N. international efforts entered the hells with the goal of inducing just enough stability that the combatants would accept a ceasefire. With that achieved and the killing diminished, regional powers and rich country cash would buy negotiations. Buy? Oh, yes. Call it art of the local deal. The bled-out combatants would get smart and fashion a sustainable settlement.

Oh. But the record. No settlements. Continued chaos. Bunkers protected by minefields. Fanatics biding their time.

Hence the 2025 Alternative: Trump-era disruptive peace-manhandling says, "Get to the deal because the death toll is unsustainable. And if you don't?"

For the moment, stop it there. Anyone who pays attention to current events already gets the gist of what I mean by disruptive peace-manhandling. If you don't, I'll define it in a few paragraphs.

But consider Planet Earth's homicidal hells. The global death toll is hideous. Ukraine-Russia, Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, Israel and its enemies, even Cambodia-Thailand and Burma.

Why? Dark human souls given to greed is an ancient explanation worth considering even in the age of artificial intelligence. Maniacs like Vladimir Putin (Ukraine war) and the leaders of Hamas/Hezbollah/Houthis/Iran (Israel's regional war) must have it driven into their skulls with highly explosive evidence that their criminal heads risk permanent erasure before they even consider making a deal.

The U.N. could never do that. Peace-manhandling says killing the perpetrators is a definite possibility. On Nov. 2, President Donald Trump directly threatened the lives of Nigerian Muslim gangsters murdering Christians in northern Nigeria. (See my column from last week.) Combine U.S. electronic, human and satellite intelligence smart weapons and, yes, the Boko Haram leader killing and raping innocents is in the Hellfire missile gunsight of a CIA operator manning a computer in Nevada.

That's 21st-century systems peace enforcement. Discreet and deadly enforcement. The murderous leaders held responsible. Like Israel's ingenious September 2024 wireless pager-delivered "discretely targeted simultaneous mass bombing attack" that killed or maimed key Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.

Those who survived? They were, and are, scared.

Lebanon. UNIFIL may well be the premier example of U.N. peacekeeping failures. UNIFIL: U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon. If you've never heard of it, you haven't paid attention for 47 years.

UNIFIL wasn't interim nor forceful. Since it wasn't forceful (like peace-manhandling can be forceful), it was never effective.

The U.N. Security Council authorized UNIFIL in 1978. In 1982, Israel fought a war with Iranian-backed guerrillas (Hezbollah) and Palestinian fighters. UNIFIL became a U.N. force behind Israeli lines. Israel subsequently withdrew. In 2006, another Israel-Hezbollah war erupted. UNIFIL's 10,000 paid peacekeepers watched. Result: UNIFIL unfulfilled.

After 2006, Iranian weapons and cash gave Hezbollah the power to create a "Hezbollahstan" on the Israeli border — a region of geo-political limbo beyond Lebanese government jurisdiction and U.N. interdiction.

In August 2025, the U.N. decided to withdraw UNIFIL by the end of 2026. The U.N.'s goal: Leave "Lebanon fully in charge of southern security."

The U.N. website makes this claim: "U.N. Peacekeeping helps countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace."

Alas, help is a squish word. Israeli Grim Beepers, Israeli artillery, U.S. standoff weapons and a U.S. president who will pull the trigger — these are also navigation beacons on the path to peace.

To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.