Who's for a Cease Fire? (coalition of the dragged kicking and screaming)

[ProSense]

Who's for a Cease Fire?

Oh, and by the way, nobody wants to send troops.

Who's shocked? Question is what do we call the nations who will be drafted? They're not a coalition of the willing. They won't even be a coalition of the coerced. I think we've got only one reality left, thanks to Bush.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the coalition of the dragged kicking and screaming. Victims to be announced at a later date.

The United States has ruled out its soldiers participating, NATO says it is overstretched, Britain feels its troops are overcommitted and Germany says it is willing to participate only if Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia which it would police, agrees to it, a highly unlikely development.

Snip...

There is also the burden of history. France — which has called the idea of a force premature — and the United States are haunted by their last participation in a multinational force in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in 1982, when they became belligerents in the Lebanese civil war and tangled fatally with Hezbollah. ...

(snip)

For the moment, at least, Israel is laying out an ambitious, if perhaps unrealistic, view of what the force would do. Israel wants it to keep Hezbollah away from the border, allow the Lebanese government and army to take control over all of its territory, and monitor Lebanon’s borders to ensure that Hezbollah is not resupplied with weapons.

(snip)

The Europeans, by contrast, including Britain, France and Germany, envision a much less robust international buffer force, one that would follow a cease-fire and operate with the consent of the Lebanese government to support the deployment of its army in southern Lebanon. ...

Nations Reluctant to Commit Troops to Lebanon

Yeah, this will work. Britain said it will not go; America can't (see Iraq).

Dr. Rice, time for that birthing epidural.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24294

[shain from kane]

1. Four U.N. observers killed already. No thanks. n/t

[Sherman A1]

2. How about those Iraqi Security Forces?

Any of the zillion, we have paid to train available? If not perhaps Blackwater Security has an opportunity here. I am sure they could come up with a few guys for the right price. And of course Halliburton would be happy to do some of the reconstruction work for a modest fee.

[Igel]

3. If Hezbollah won't disarm voluntarily,

nobody in their right mind would go in as the peace-imposing force. Either Hezbollah would stand and fight, or more likely it would melt away. Bedouin-like. And then there'd be occasional IEDs, gunfire, rocket fire ... Iraq lite.

If Hezbollah will disarm voluntarily, no peace-imposing force is necessary.

[tocqueville]

4. some precisions about France

a poll today showed that 70% of the French supported a French participation. Besides there are already about 1700 French troops in Beirut (Alpine Infantry, Navy Engineers and Special Forces) or aboard the 5 warships present. Heavy equipment like tanks and attack helicopters are inside the BPC Mistral. Even if most of the troops are involved in the evacuation, part of them has already intervened in South Lebanon to evacuate trapped French citizens and more are on the way. And a lot of the UNIFIL troops are French.

see thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1725344&mesg_id=1725344



French soldiers from 7th BCA receive ammunition to secure the unloading of relief goods aboard the French warship Siroco for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the evacuation of foreigners from Naqura, in southern war-torn Lebanon, Tuesday July 25, 2006. France is to evacuate 400 nationals who are trapped by the fighting in southern Lebanon. Intensive fighting raged today between Israeli forces and Hezbollah forces at the outskirts of the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil after the army claimed to have taken control of the Shiite group's military headquarters in the region. (AP PHOTO / ERIC FEFERBERG, Pool)