Four years and several billion dollars in, people are taking a look at the UN “peacekeeping” force in Darfur to figure out what they are doing. The answer is that they are doing very little, but spending a lot.

“It may be better than nothing,” one analyst suggested. That may be far from “praise” but it is about the nicest thing one is liable to hear about the force, which has become a huge money sink with very little in the way of effort, let alone result.

Some critics are saying that the UN force isn’t “aggressive enough,” but other UN forces which have behaved more aggressively have tended to dramatically worsen the situation they were sent to “handle.”

Lt. Gen. Nyamvumba of the UN force defended the program, saying that 38 of the troops have been killed since it began and that this proves they are “doing their job.” Exactly what they are doing beyond spending money and getting killed is very much a matter of opinion, and actual humanitarian groups in the area say that they are “doing nothing.”