Wrong reason, right target

My apologies for the lack of blogging recently, having some major doings at my office. I caught a story over the weekend about a mob in Beirut attacked the United Nations HQ building to vent their outrage over the terrible loss of life in Qana after an Israeli air strike into Lebanon. Apparently the UN served as a proxy for anger at Israel and the US over Qana.

But the Lebanese hit the right target, albeit for the wrong reason. UN fecklessness and its impotent "peacekeeping" mission have failed Lebanon for decades. The United Nations had a real opportunity to pressure Hezbollah after UNSCR 1559 was passed, but dithered away the opportunity. As a result, the Cedar Revolution tragically lies in ruins.

Of course most of the outrage should be directed at Hezbollah, not the UN. The cowards intentionally place their weapons and material within densely populated urban centers, placing innocent civilians at greater risk. Australia’s Herald Sun has published some damning photographs that document how Hezbollah flouts the internationally accepted norms of warfare, making incidents like Qana not only likely but inevitable. Of course civilian deaths are of no concern to Hezbollah and indeed actually help its cause, since they make for good propaganda fodder with the mindless international press.

But let us not forget Damascus and Tehran. In addition to the UN flag, this Lebanese chap should also be chomping on the Syrian and Iranian flags. But it's not just the Lebanese who willfully ignore the source of the bloodshed; as Dennis Lormel at the Counterterrorism Blog notes, the "international community" also lacks the fortitude to openly acknowledge - let alone confront - the true villains in this mess.