The history of the UN peacekeeping forces would be amusing if it weren't so disgraceful.

Established in sentimental expectation of cooperation if not amity, conducted with willful ignorance, and contaminated with corruption and venery,  (however so much deplored) the Peacekeepers may best have been remembered, until now, for their graceful withdrawal from the Sinai and Gaza at the Israeli border in 1967  at the request of Egypt, in order to allow the invasion to proceed unimpeded.

Oh, wait.  There was Srebrenica in 1995.  The Dutch peacekeepers have recently been charged with complicity and responsibility, in the massacre of 8,000 muslims, for peacefully abandoning their posts and delivering their safe zone guests to the invaders.

So now, here we are in the Golan, and this is just one more example of bemused Peacekeepers being disarmed and told to take a hike, and it undoubtedly won't be the last.  The UN Disengagement Observer Force --  UNDOF -- has been charged since 1974 with monitoring a buffer zone that runs across the Golan, between Israel and Syria. There are 1200 troops posted from Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands, and the Philippines.

The Syrian ambassador Bashar Jaafari said that Al-Nusra rebels linked to Al-Qaeda have obtained weapons, uniforms and vehicles from fleeing UN Peacekeepers in the Golan and have begun to attack the Syrian Army and civilian targets from the heights.  Forty-three Fijians taken hostage on Aug 30 have been released.  The Filipinos were, like the others, ordered to surrender by commanding General Singha of India, but disobeyed and fought until until they ran low on ammo, then escaped with their uniforms and vehicles under cover of darkness, through an area that had been mined. They have been criticized.

'The terrorists are now using United Nations cars, which hold the emblem of the United Nations forces in the Golan. They are using the uniform of the UNDOF, the weapons of UNDOF, the positions of UNDOF to shell on the Syrian army as well as on the civilians in the villages,' Jaafari told reporters.  Jaafari accused Israel, Qatar and Jordan of being behind a 'very big plot' to destabilize Syria by letting the Syrian rebels take control of part of the buffer to set up a 'safe zone' from where it can wage attacks. 

Israel cooperating with Hamas-funding Qatar in a very big plot?  Oh yes, the story would not be complete if Israel were not to be blamed. And those moderate rebels we want to support and arm?  The Free Syrian Army has reportedly signed a Non-Agression pact with the Islamic State (although some in the opposition deny that).

Sound familiar?