Rain Forest Wars

The Rain Forest Wars exploded in early 2162 and ravaged much of South and Central America and required the direct involvement of an expanded United Nations Defense Force to bring it to an end.

History
"God only knows how many lives were lost in the muddy and bloody hell of '62."

- UNA Officer

The conflict that swept across South America and into Central America, and would come to be know only as the "Rain Forest Wars" started simply, with a few isolated skirmishes between Frieden movement personnel and Koslovic paramilitary forces in Northwestern Brazil.

Frieden military personnel, with ample support of fascist paramilitary units, began to seek out and actively skirmish with Koslovic encampments across Western Brazil; however, Koslovic positions stretched from as far south as Mar del Plata and as far north as the Yucatan peninsula. It was from these camps and collectives that the Koslovics called for reinforcements, bringing first hundreds, then thousands of Koslovics into the conflict; while both sides began actively pulling worldwide forces into the fold, the Frieden movement found itself outmatched in Northwestern Brazil. In order to rectify this, the Frieden military expanded the focus of their attacks, reaching south into Bolivia and Paraguay, west into Peru, and north into Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana.

With the conflict spreading farther across South America, and Brazilian internal forces unable to deal with the Koslovics or the Frieden Movement, the UN Department of Peacekeeping started multiple Peacekeeping Mission forces in several countries, with observation groups sent into countries not yet involved. Initially hoped to be a conclusion to the ongoing hostilities, these missions proved to be a temporary stopgap, and brief one at that.

Even as the conflict began spreading northwards across Central America, Frieden military forces made a serious of lightning attacks on Koslovic positions in the northern Yucatan Peninsula; these attacks, while no more bloody than those already ongoing across South America, brought the Unified Republic of North America into the conflict. The URNA response was prepared and carried out with brutal efficiency: the Yucatan Peninsula was declared to be under attack and evacuated immediately, displacing thousands of civilians, followed by an unrestrained retaliation against both the Koslovics and Frieden Movement.

The brutal North American response in the Yucatan did nothing to diminish the slaughter in the south, but did serve to underline the utter ineffectiveness of UN Peacekeeping missions. With civilian casualties continuing to increase, criticism of the UN reached an all-time high: its fleet couldn't protect, and neither could its peacekeepers. Usually put off by outright brutality, public opinion had shifted in favor of the URNA approach - the focused destruction of the enemy and a quick end to combat by any means necessary. With URNA military forces building up on the Mexican-Guatemalan border and the situation in South America still unstable, the UN Security Council came to a revolutionary decision and pushed it through without delay. Within hours of its passing, the United Nations Army was brought into existence. The UNA began by incorporating already existing Peacekeeper units, but also forces belonging to the nations of; the Unified Republic of North America, the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and the members of the European Union.

With the largest combined army of the twenty-second century assembling, and naval forces from around the world closing in on South America, the United Nations Defense Force authorized the immediate intervention by its newly created ground force into the conflict. With additional personnel, equipment, and vehicles continuing to join the increasingly massive force, the UNDF, with assistance of the MSC, created the Unified Ground Command to manage the UNDF Army.

The United Nations Army, or UNA, began a methodical advance into the Koslovic-Frieden battleground: URNA troops, aircraft, and armor forging south through first Belize and Guatemala, then Honduras and El Salvador, and finally into Nicaragua; European forces gathering first in the West Indies, then landing and advancing into the interiors of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and the northernmost coastline of Brazil; African, Middle Eastern, and Indian forces landing along the main coastline of Brazil, and linking up with both European and South American armies; Thai, Indonesia, and Australian forces making landfall in Argentina and moving north; and Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Japanese forces landing in Peru and Ecuador.

As UN Army forces steadily advanced, Koslovic and Frieden military forces wilted, with many slipping away, disappearing quietly into the civilian populace and eventually escaping South America altogether. Others, determined to pursue their opponents to the end, remained; the slaughter in the state of Amazonas reached in zenith only weeks before UNA forces finally penetrated the devastated region.

Although South and Central America were completely in UN control by November of 2162, the devastation done would last more than thirty years. And while the UN had decisively ended direct combat operations on Earth, the Koslovics and Frieden Movement remained entrenched across the other planets of the Sol system, still diametrically opposed and unwilling to consider negotiations.