STOCKHOLM -- For Sweden, my homeland, the United Nations is a sacred cow. But today, many Swedes, like others around the world, are having second thoughts. Three events incited these doubts. The first was the slaughter in Rwanda a decade ago of more than 800,000 people within 100 days -- probably the fastest genocide ever. The well-documented fact is that Kofi Annan, then the U.N.'s deputy secretary general, ordered U.N. soldiers in Rwanda not to intervene or protect the victims. Why Annan, after this enormous failure, was then promoted to secretary general of the U.N. remains a puzzle.