Ceasefire Blues

Fire of Liberty

The more I look at the ceasefire and the creation of the UNIFIL force in Lebanon, According to this piece in the Jerusalem Post the member nations are very hesitant in bucking up the UNIFIL force due to the fact that they haven't been given a clear mandate on what their mission is or if they are given the right to use violent force to deal with Hezbollah because such a mission is give to the Lebanese arm. To make matters worse, the Lebanese army/government continues to insist that they're not going to create a confrontation with Hezbollah by trying to disarm them. So what this basically does is to create a situation similar to the world community which pretty much relegates the member nations of UNIFIL into a position much like we saw in 1983 when the US, France and other nations were deployed in Beirut. During this time the small contingent of US Marines and French soldiers were bivouacked in the middle of a Middle Eastern "Wild West", where threats from militias and terrorists awaited all hours of the day. In fact soldiers who served and survived this experience in Lebanon recalled how they were constantly under fire(guns & mortars) from the enemy but due to due the UN mandate these soldiers were ordered to keep their guns unloaded and not to fire back under any circumstances. This lack of a strong mandate to confront and disarm the terrorists would eventually result in the horrific bombing of the US Marine Barracks and the French Paratroopers which subsequently resulted in these forces leaving Lebanon and turning into a war zone for a decade more. This time also allowed Hezbollah to fill the vacuum in southern Lebanon and establish a force that would launch the recent attacks on Israel and resume its war with Israel.

As usual the Resolution 1701 is just another example of how the UN makes for a good debating society that offers a good talk but in the long run is just as pure fluff when invoking their resolutions. So just sit back and watch the UNIFIL forces continue to be as feckless as they've been since being formed in 1978 while the Lebanese army enters south of the Litani to play "paddy-cake" with Hezbollah. I just hope the soldiers in UNIFIL don't suffer the same fate as the US Marines, French Paratroopers and embassy staff did back in 1983.(But we're talking about Hezbollah and we know how trustworthy they really are.)