The resolution that passed Friday made Hezbollah a legit power broker in Middle Eastern politics, all through killing eight Israeli soliders and kidnapping two. The United Nations, with the help of the Bush Administration, have shown that while they're not willing to witness Hezbollah's defeat and they're not willing to allow Israel to do it either. So what's the result? Hezbollah wins. A terrorist organization becomes a legitimate organization. If they weren't before, they definitely are now.
What is the message in this month-long affair that the Bush Administration has shown us? TERRORISM WORKS. Plain and simple. If done properly, if a terrorist organization, no matter how many people they kill and how many incidents they start, can stay organized for a matter of time and endure any kind of operation taken to defeat them, they will be recognized by the "international community" and become a political entity. The "international community" simply wants peace at all costs, even to the level of appeasement.
Does anyone actually believe that Lebanon will take steps to disarm Hezbollah? Lebanon is just as much at fault for this conflict as Hezbollah is, because they were ordered by the U.N. to disarm Hezbollah once Israel pulled out. Not only did they fail to do it, but they gave every excuse in the book not to do so.
And then there's this by Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, in an interview with Speigel Magazine Online:
SPIEGEL: United Nations Resolution 1559 demands that the army should control the whole country -- up to the border with Israel.
Lahoud: It (the army) does that. But it wasn't the army that freed the occupied south of the country, rather it was the resistance which achieved that. Without this resistance Lebanon would still be occupied today.
and this:
SPIEGEL: Please explain your relationship to Hezbollah. What do you think of Hassan Nasrallah?
Lahoud: Hezbollah enjoys utmost prestige in Lebanon, because it freed our country. All over the Arab world you hear: Hezbollah maintains Arab honor, and even though it (Hezbollah) is very small, it stands up to Israel. And of course Nasrallah has my respect.
That interview was done on July 25th, almost a week into the offensive. This wasn't three or four years ago. Thus, what would make anyone feel as if the Lebanese government will do anything that would be considered against Hezbollah's wishes? If Lebanon's head of state would say this so freely, what do you think others in Lebanon are saying?And even if Lebanon wanted to do something about Hezbollah, 1. They'd have a hard time getting the army to do something about it, as a significant amount of them are Hezbollah supporters, and probably fighters as well, and 2. Doing so would risk another civil war. Thus, the only chance that Hezbollah would ever be disarmed or destroyed is up to Israel. The Bush Administration's idea that Lebanon would do so is completely naive, short-sighted, and ignorant.
Instead, the U.N. does not order an immediate demand of Hezbollah activities within Lebanon, and it does not call for the immediate return of the kidnapped soldiers, which was why the invasion was done in the first place. The bulk of the resolution is placed on Israel, and there are no safeguards in place in order to make sure that Hezbollah won't attack Israel again, or that it will disarm.
The more I read about this, the more it makes me sick. We are about to sell out the Israelis for this ridiculously convoluted notion of "peace". This isn't peace; it's appeasement.
More later.