By John E. Carey
July 21, 2006
The U.N. is setting a new standard of ineptitude and weakness in international conduct.
Currently, the U.N. is paralyzed as Israel battles terrorists including Hezbollah. It is pretty clear that Iran and Syria have been backing the terrorists.
Last Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted that Israel was not tough enough to counter Iran and also warned against an attack against Syria.
"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.
"If Israel commits another act of idiocy and aggresses Syria, this will be the same as an aggression against the entire Islamic world and it will receive a stinging response," Ahmadinejad said in a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
The hard-line Iranian president, who said Israel should be "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska, has also compared Israel's military strikes on Gaza and Lebanon to tactics used by Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler.
The U.N. has reacted with: nothing.
Israel and Hezbollah are engaged in a life or death struggle. Hezbollah, backed by Syria, Iran and large part of Lebanon, has proclaimed its intent to remove Israel from the earth.
Israel, backed by the United States, won't go without a fight. In fact, it looks like Israel may now be in the business of shelling its way to a new buffer zone on the border with Lebanon.
How do you make friends with a nation, or dare I say a people (What did Ahmadinejad call it? "The Entire Islamic World") when they are not shy about screaming that they want to destroy your country?
Israel's move against Hezbollah has revealed one of the reasons behind everyone's frustration in the region of South Lebanon. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon - known by its acronym Unifil -- has a long history of ineptitude, laxity and corruption. As a "peacekeeping" force, Unifil is a totally ineffective..
Some might say that the U.N.'s "peacekeepers" have allowed this pot to come to a boil.
Other smart Americans say we should give the U.N. more of a chance to solve the problems of the Middle East and elsewhere. Well, Unifil has been working to keep the peace in the Middle East for only 28 years. How much more time should we give them?
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