It looks like the EU may finally be stepping up to the plate with regards to sending "peacekeeping" troops to Lebanon. It simply astounds me that the area of the world that is most supportive of the UN as international arbiter is having so much trouble living up to the commitments pledged by that organization.
And France. I mean can be said about France. First, they were hot to lead the effort, originally pledging 15,000. Then, when privately threated by Syria that they could experience a "repeat of 1983", they backed off, sending only 200 troops.
The official explaination, though, is not unreasonable
Chirac defended his initial reluctance to send a big UN contingent, saying he would have been attacked as a "mad dog" had he authorised higher numbers without first gaining clear assurances about their mission and right to self-defence.
There is no doubt that this is a problem. I mean not even the U.N.’s mediator in the Middle East, Norwegian Terje Roed-Larsen knows what the UN force is going to do. An interview with NPRs Robert Siegel went like this
Siegel: Ambassador Larsen, it seems as though the Europeans are very reluctant to commit troops to a peacekeeping force until they know there’s a truce; and the Israelis seem reluctant to commit to a complete truce until they know that Lebanon’s borders are secured; and the Lebanese seem to be unable to secure their borders without the help of some international force. It sounds like you’re in a pickle.
Larsen: Yeah. There is a dilemma, as you are pointing out. The concerns of some potential troop contributors are legitimate, because unless there are proper political underpinnings for any truce - and of course this also goes for Lebanon - there will be a vulnerable security situation....
SIEGEL: Would you expect peacekeepers to go in, the new UNIFIL force, to go in and actively look for, say, Hezbollah arms caches still in the south or would they be more passive and leave that sort of thing either to the Lebanese army or someone else?
Mr. LARSEN: Of course, I mean, if this force saw that there was a breach, a violation of the resolution, it would have to be reported immediately.
Of course it would be reported immediately. But would they do anything about it? Before the current adventure, UNIFIL was on station reporting all manner of violations by Hizbollah. For 12 years. But no one did anything about it. As a result, Hizbollah build sophisticated underground command and control centers, trained troops in the military way, acquired sophisticated communications equipment as well as shore-to-ship missles and ground-toground rockets.
But everything was dutifully reported to the UN.
SIEGEL: Well, before I let you go I’m going to ask you to just say something for people who follow the news and wonder whether we’re on the slippery slope toward a resumption of fighting in southern Lebanon, if not a larger regional conflict, to say something encouraging that you’ve heard over the past week of negotiations in the Middle East.
Mr. LARSEN: I think first and foremost what is encouraging, is that there is a real and serious effort by the government of Lebanon in order to secure its border and to deploy troops in the south so that the government of Lebanon is capable of exercising authority over all its territory with the goal of having one government, one gun, and one law in that country, and not having guns in the hands of a variety of militias. This is encouraging.
I don't know about you, but what would encourage me is if the Europeans got serious and vowed that they would do what it takes to enforce UN resolution 1557 and 1701.
There should be no ambiguity about the mandate of the UN force in Lebanon: disarm Hizbollah and prevent their resupply from Iran and Syria.
Is that so hard to state?
But the fact is Europe, and especially France is not serious.
"My feeling is that the figure that was put forward at the beginning of discussions — 15,000 for a reinforced UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) — was a figure that was quite excessive," [Chirac] said in Paris.
Of course. Disarming Hizbollah should be a walk in the park. Look at how easy Israel had it.
NOT!
What? Are these people blind? Hizboallh is a well-trained proxy Army. You will need a serious force to enforce UN mandates.
But of course, the UN is not a serious organization and why it is that anyone...anyone... thinks they are is a complete mystery to me.
EU president Finland, which will chair the talks in Brussels, said the bloc's credibility was at stake and that it must show it can deploy rapidly to protect a fragile truce.
When pigs fly, Mr President.
When pigs fly.
