July 22, 2006 at 20:07:35

Day 11, Crisis In Southern Lebanon: Blame the United Nations

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By John E. Carey (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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We put those last two paragraphs into quotation marks because they were written by David Makovskyin the Baltimore Sun on July 18. Mr. Makoyskyin is a senior fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Project on the Middle East Peace Process. (read his essay at: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templatec06.php?cid=947)

You'd think, in thirty years, someone would say, "leaving Arab terrorists, who routinely talk in the most ugly terms of pushing the State of Israel into the sea, in control of a part of Lebanon snuggled up against Israel, is a dangerous thing."

Did the UN ever say that? Did the UN do anything? No.

Israelis were left to live in terror as their neighbor fomented terror. And the rhetoric coming from Israel's enemies is appalling in its vitriol.

"Thanks be to God, despite its criminal and savage nature, the Zionist regime and its supporters in the West do not have the power to look in the same way towards Iran," the fiercely anti-Israeli president wailed recently.

The same people who rioted when newspapers published unflattering cartoons about Islam routinely use the ugliest words to threaten Israelis. And they get away with it.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, no stranger to criticizing Israel, said today that the conflict had displaced at least 700,000 Lebanese so far, and Israel's destruction of bridges and roads has made access to them difficult. "I'm afraid of a major humanitarian disaster," Kofi Annan told CNN.

We ask: why, then, did Mr. Annan allow Unifil to do next to nothing to rein in Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli terrorists in Southern Lebanon for the last 28 years at mostly US expense?

The UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, is already passing the hat for money and he already knows just what to ask for: more than $100 million to help the displaced. He said he would make an appeal "urging, begging" the international community for contributions.

As part of an effort to avert such a crisis, Israel eased its blockade of Lebanon's ports to allow the first shiploads of aid to arrive. It remained unclear how that aid would get to the isolated towns and villages where the fighting has been centered. This is because the UN has not the foresight, despite the fact that we are in day 11 of this crisis, to muster relief agencies and other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) expeditiously to form a human chain of helping hands to bring forward the food, water and medial supplies the refugees need and deserve.

Let me be perfectly clear: despite months of warning, the UN was not able to stop Hezbollah from annoying Israel; was unable to prevent wanton attacks on Israel despite 28 years of assimilation in the region; and was unprepared for the ultimate Israeli reaction: anger, and attack resulting in human flight.

Despite the fact that this is all history repeating itself, the UN was caught unawares. Israel isn't doing anything new. They seem to have the AAA "trip Tick" to Southern Lebanon memorized by now.

As a former military planner, I was taught to anticipate. What annoys me most about the UN is not that they are lying, cheating, money wasting bureaucrats living in the United States at mostly US expense, not that they routinely engage in evil money making capers like "Oil for Food" disguised as helpful international peacekeeping.

What annoys me most about the UN is that a lot of people get killed, hurt, and displaced because nobody in the UN can anticipate and nobody in the UN is ever held accountable. And then the UN wraps itself in the humanitarian shroud of tears and ashes and asks for: even more money.

Every crisis that brings forth the leadership of the UN asking the world to send groceries and money, except the natural disasters like the Tsunami in Thailand in December 2004, could have been anticipated. The UN just has not, and is not, doing its job.

We have no rosy outlook that would allow us to predict, after 28 years of ineptitude, that the UN would be successful in keeping the peace in Southern Lebanon in the future. We should not even consider Kofi Annan's wonderful offer to "establish" a UN "beefed-up" peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon when the smoke clears. Instead we should ask, "Where's the beef?"

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