The United Nations' military operation initiated on June 12, 1993 in Somalia has considerable moral implications. Examination of this first "peace-enforcement" operation with three guidelines of the just war doctrine, (1) proportionality of the goals to use force and the means and costs to achieve them, (2) just cause of war, and (3) warring actors' legitimacy to use force, indicates that this UN action is not justifiable. The ethically optimal alternative to this military operation would have been non-military action, no matter how ineffective it could have been. This moral analysis concludes with two lessons for the future of UN peacekeeping efforts. First, the UN's capability of national reconstruction is ultimately limited to non-coercive assistance of local communities’ voluntary effort. Second, the UN is not able to justifiably use force beyond self-defense at this point of history.