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.“All the politicians are saying, ‘Great, great’ to the
idea of a force, but no one is saying whose soldiers will be on the ground,”
said one senior European official. “Everyone will volunteer to be in
charge of the logistics in Cyprus.”There has been strong verbal support for such a force in public, but also
private concerns that soldiers would be seen as allied to Israel and would
have to fight Hezbollah guerrillas who do not want foreigners, let alone the
Lebanese Army, coming between themselves and the Israelis.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. …
Yeah, this will work. Britain said it will not go; America can't (see Iraq).
Dr. Rice, time for that birthing
epidural.
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