Tuesday, August 01, 2006

What UN solution?

I am really curious about just how a UN ‘peace keeping’ force would assist the Israeli-Hezbollah crisis.

The main protagonists display only murderous contempt for the UN. Bush and Blair show a different sort of contempt for the organization, but would really like it to behave like a sort of International NATO battling terrorism.

The normal providers of UN peace keepers are already voicing reluctance to commit to the plan, with Australia foe example citing over-commitment.

However the real reason, generally among ‘donor’ countries, is the likelihood this would be another military force as opposed to peace keeping operation.

Not that there has been a reluctance in the past to be part of such an operation, but there is little hope of putting together a ‘politically’ cohesive force.

Rice is making a fair hash of her ‘Kissinger’ shuttle attempt. Again, she is trapped in that lack of political cohesion which seems to be the most outstanding aspect of the conflict.

Calls by Rice for UN intervention, a UN solution, ring hollow in light of the US back door support for this Israeli operation gone wrong slowly revealing itself.

If the UN did intervene, did somehow manage to chain up the ‘junk yard dog’ again, they still need to deal with Islam’s intercine conflict. That is really the heart of the matter; Israel is more along the lines of an irritation to be dealt with before the Sunnis and Shias get down to the real business at hand.

Like NATO in Afghanistan, the UN is now expected to move in and clean up another monumental blunder of US and coalition strategy, but surely it is too late for that. The horse has bolted, the Shia by way of the Iraq adventure have been given their long awaited opportunity and the enmity is deep.

The UN is powerless, as are the US led coalition, to stop the monster which has been unleashed. The duplicity and ill conceived strategies are centuries deep and the resentment towards western ‘crusaders’ almost universal.

The US got rid of the butcher of Baghdad, and now we can all pay the price, but more than any it is the innocents of the region who will pay the greatest price.

6 comments:

Praguetwin said...

I'm sure the boming of the UN outpost didn't help the chances of putting together a force.

Calls by Rice for UN intervention, a UN solution, ring hollow in light of the US back door support for this Israeli operation gone wrong slowly revealing itself.

They ring hollow in light of the U.S. disregard for the institution, especially vis a vis iraq or perhaps even more pertinent, the U.S.' stance on Lebanon in the first week which was directly opposite to the opinions of the leaders of the world.

The junk-yard dog learns that the UN can, in fact, be disregarded.

Or blown up: whichever the case may be.

romunov said...

I guess the only way to stop the conflict in short order would be to send in overwhelming force to curb both sides. But, kitty can scratch, and no one wants to get hurt over someone else's beef.

I think I would first start with making the UN relevant in material and minds. People need to believe in it. Not many do. I have no idea how to accomplish this, we can't even decide on which side of the road we should drive, let alone govern world peace.

Cartledge said...

Damned if I can see any useful role for them.

Cartledge said...

Welcome back. Hope you enjoyed your desert sojurn. Was interesting to see you meet up with another blogger.
Any excuse for a beer?

Anonymous said...

I agree, romunov. The UN is 60 years old. It's about time we let it grow up and do its job.

If there's any chance for peace in the Middle East (and I'm not at all sure that there is), it can only come through the UN, it seems to me.

Cartledge said...

My concern is tat the UN is only the sum of its member states, subject to that veto.
Even then it's asking a lot for anything short of strong agreement from the majority of the assembly. That includes Arab states.