Hundreds of young Marines plowing through the waves east of Africa may soon get a good look at a "new world order" over the horizon - the lonely life of the solitary superpower.
While diplomats in New York put final touches on a U.N. plan to save Somalia, American troops seem headed for the starring role in a campaign to restore order and deliver food in the starving African nation.Why always the Americans?
"You're the only real global power," says Hungary's U.N. ambassador. "You're No. 1. But with that you have certain responsibilities. You cannot have it both ways."
Besides, to be practical, says Ambassador Andre Erdos, "if you want a good chance of success, you have to rely on U.S. military forces."
It's not just the superpower's super military. It's also Washington's political and economic clout, which helps insure any project against failure. And it's the American mentality itself - product of a half-century of global reach and readiness to sacrifice lives for distant causes.
When the Bush administration last week finally offered to send up to 20,000 U.S. troops to Somalia, the U.N. leadership seized on the offer after months of indecision about cracking down on the country's warring clan leaders.
Soldiers from other nations may have cameo roles in the U.N.-sponsored force. But the Americans clearly will dominate, not because the Marines happened to be in the neighborhood, but because the Marines, in a sense, are always in the neighborhood.
The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit - 1,800 Marines aboard three ships in the Indian Ocean - is one of two floating U.S. strike forces constantly at sea, self-contained units that can support themselves through a 60-day de-ploy-ment. No one else has a weapon like them.
Once the Marines have secured an airfield ashore in Somalia, they may be followed by paratroopers of the 18th Airborne Corps, from Fort Bragg, N.C.
These rapid-deployment forces are supported by an unmatchable logistics, communications and intelligence machine.
Fleets of giant transport planes - C-5A Galaxies and C-141 Starlifters - and flotillas of 30-knot, globe-girdling "fast sealift" ships can keep the troops equipped and supplied. The U.S. military's worldwide communications web will keep them in touch. A flood of intelligence from reconnaissance flights, satellite photos and pilotless drones will keep them informed.
Probably only the French, British and Russian defense forces could come close to equaling that power - and then only by badly neglecting other commitments. As for Third World armies, the current plight of an African multinational force in Liberia, pinned down by a ragtag rebel army, is telling.
A true U.N. multinational force, collected from several nations, would face a world of problems.
For one, it would literally have to rent equipment to fulfill its mission, making the "rapid" deployment less rapid.
"It takes a long time for the U.N. to generate support," said Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, a Canadian who commanded the U.N. peacekeeping force in disintegrating Yugoslavia. "That is, the support is available, but it takes a long time to get it into the area."
Such peacekeeping burden-sharing invites other troubles as well. The various forces may have incompatible weapons; their radios may not talk to each other; their soldiers may not understand each other; their aircraft and armor may not recognize each other - all potentially fatal flaws in a danger zone.
A still more basic concern: The United Nations is not yet capable of organizing and commanding a major military operation. The U.N. secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, has laid out an ambitious plan for building the U.N. military arm, but it faces months, possibly years of debate.
Meanwhile, this week he told the Security Council - unrealistically - that military powers would have to quickly lend staff officers to his New York operations center if they want the United Nations, and not the United States, to run the Somalia mission.
The U.N. Secretariat has nine military officers.
The Pentagon has a staff of 24,000.
Beyond all the hardware and hard-hitting troops, the United States may be best-equipped in another area as well - psychologically. It is accustomed to "power projection."
As the world this week turns to its solitary superpower to take command in Somalia, the superpower can only, as always, turn to its people, and hope for the best.