Blair and Annan call for international troops in Lebanon
-
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer 18 minutes ago
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan called Monday for the deployment of international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombingIsrael.
President Bush, not realizing his remarks were being picked up by a microphone at a summit of world leaders, bluntly expressed his frustration with Hezbollah's actions.
"See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get
Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive)," Bush told Blair in a discussion before the Group of Eight leaders began their lunch.
Bush's remarks were picked up by the summit's closed-circuit television, which was filming the leaders sitting down to eat. Normally, the images are transmitted with sound that does not allow reporters to pick out individual comments.sound. But in this case a microphone picked up Bush's comments to Blair.
Blair, whose remarks were not as clearly heard, appeared to be pressing Bush about the importance of getting international peacekeepers into the region.
The tape shows Bush buttering a roll while Blair stands behind him pressing his point on the Middle East. At another point in the tape, Bush jokes with Russian President
Vladimir Putin about the size of Russia and how long it will take leaders to fly home. Putin made a reply that could not be heard.
Bush, a stickler for keeping to his schedule, also thanked another leader for a gift of sweaters and said, "We have to keep this thing moving. I have to leave at 2:15."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060717/ap_on_re_eu/summit_rdp;_ylt=A9FJqaSUXrtE_9sAxxive8UF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE- -
Politicians...all they do is talk.
It's a shame troops are at the mercy of their political leaders: deploy or not to deploy.
Moderate Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia should rein in Muslim extremists and add weight by sending their troops instead of grabbing pop corn and watching the continued bloodshed as it unfolds.
They owe nothing to Israel, but they owe it to their arab brothers to keep the peace and protect their own people.
It was no surprise that a BBC Hard Talk involving Lebanese, Egyptians and others voted that Arab nations had done little on the motion of aiding the Palestinian cause, other than contributing money. -
bush just like to go in there and shoot the helloutta'em texan style yeehaw!
-
UN Peacekeeping Force has been on duty before along the Israeli-Lebanon border, and it did not stop the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The harrassing rockets launched from southern Lebanon has always led to the insecurity of the Israelis living along the Lebanon-Israeli border. The Israeli need for a buffer zone has been ongoing as long as the conflict persist.
In 1978, after being repeatedly shelled by P.L.O. artillery and infiltared by P.L.O.commandos, Israel had crossed into southern Lebanon and chased the P.L.O. forces north ofthe Litani River, 18 miles beyond the Israeli border.
Despite the presence of some 7,000 U.N. peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) sent into southern Lebanon in 1978 to help preserve a fragile peace, the P.L.O. was able to set up a stronghold in Tyre, outside UNIFIL's jurisdiction, from which it could shell northern Israel. A year ago, a top Begin aide boasted that one day Israel would so cripple the P.L.O. that its leaders would be comparable to "the White Russians who sat in Paris cafes after the Bolshevik revoultion."
Sharon had long wanted to destroy the P.L.O.'s bases, weapons and supplies. He thought, perhaps wishfully, that the P.L.O. would unite with other Palestinians in Jordan (more than 60% of the country's 2.2 million inhabitants are Palestinian) to overthrow King Hussein and create a Palestinian state less threatening to Israel. The Sharon plan also envisioned uniting the forces of Major Sa'ad Haddad, Israel's Lebanese surrogate who is encamped with his forces in a 600-sq.-mi. buffer zone along the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, with the Christian Phalangists in the north. The combined Christian forces, in Sharon's scheme, would take over the central government and restore what Sharon calls "a free Lebanon." This government would presumably get the Syrians to withdraw.
For months, Sharon had been restrained by the Israeli Cabinet from launching an attack into Lebanon. But then came the incident that provided the pretext for the invasion. Radical anti-P.L.O. Palestinian hitmen gravely wounded Israel's Ambassador to Britian, Shlomo Agrov, in London on Thursday, June 3.
The Israeli air force promptly retaliated by bombing P.L.O. strongholds in Beirut, inflicting some 500 casualties. The P.L.O. artillery and rocketeers blasted back, hurling at least 500 rounds of explosives into 23 towns and villages in the Galilee area of northern Israel. Astonishingly, only one person died: an elderly man who had a heart attack.
On Friday night, the Israeli Cabinet met secretly in Begin's office in Jerusalem.
Another Cabinet session Saturday night completed the decision. Sharon would have his war. Despite the Israeli massing of troops, weapons and vehicles in staging areas carved into the hills and valleys of northern Galilee, the timing of the attack into Lebanon was a well-kept secret.
Lieut. General William Callaghan, commander of UNIFIL, was astonished when he walked into the forward headquarters of the Israeli Northern Command in Zeft on Sunday morning. He had come to discuss a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an end to the P.L.O.-Israeli barrages across the border. But there he found Lieut. General Rafael Eitan, the Israeli Chief of Staff. Eitan had a disconcerting announcement: Israel would invade Lebanon in 28 minutes. Callaghan argued futilely against the decision.
From before noon until after dark, the long columns of Israeli armor and trucks rumbled past Misgav Am, Kefar Giladi, Kefar Yuval and Metullah. There was an epic, almost cinematic, quality to the procession: huge Centurion tanks armored personnel carriers, Jeeps armed with machine guns, halftracks carrying antiaircraft guns, all bedecked with red bunting to make them easy for Israeli warplanes to identify. Behind them came communications vans, supply trucks and ambulances. Finally, giant self-propelled 175-mm artillery pieces, which could destroy targets 23 miles ahead of the advancing caravans, lumbered along the narrow dirt roads, kicking up clouds of choking dust.
The invading forces split into three separate attacking columns. One headed west, then north along the sea toward the P.L.O. strongholds of Rashidiyah and Tyre. The central column rolled toward the P.L.O. vantage point of Beaufort Castle, with the goal of pushing north along the western entrance to the Bekaa Valley and of blocking any attempt by theSyrians to move out of their occupied territory. The third column opened an eastern front, intending to clear the P.L.O. out of the 144-sq-mi. zone in southern Lebanon that the Israelis called "Fatahland" because it is dominated by Al-Fatah, the military arm of the P.L.O.
One potential problem for the invaders was whether UNIFL's troops would try to stop them. Israeli soldiers were under orders not to shoot at the peace keepers. Callaghan had instructed his contingents, according to a U.N. report, "to block advancing forces,take defense measures and stay in their positions until their safety was seriously imperiled." Most of his soldiers apparently had no difficulty deciding that they were immediately "imperiled."
The Israelis moving toward Beaufort Castle passed UNIFIL posts fortified only with ironic signs: U.N. ZONE: ARMED PERSONNEL DO NOT ENTER.
Still, UNIFIL managed to delay a few of the Israeli units. A small group of Nepalese troops stubbornly refused to clear Khardala Bridge on the Litani River so that Israeli tanks detouring from the main central advance could pass. Drivers of some 100 Israeli tanks were finally ordered simply to over run the blockade, pushing the Nepalese aside. On the coastal road, another UNIFIL unit set up road blocks. The unit watched helplessly as the Israeli tanks pointed their barrels menacingly at them without firing, then bulldozed ahead.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Knesset took its first vote on Begin's invasion decision. For months the legislators had bickered about how to deal with the P.L.O. But with the military news encouraging and the nation rallying with patriotic fervor, a no-confidence resolution on the war introduced by the three-member Communist faction lost, 94 to 3. Addressing the Knesset, the Prime Minister spoke more slowly than usual and with evident sadness. Begin declared that Israel did not want "one square millimeter of Lebanese territory" and would not harm the Syrian forces unless they attacked Israeli troops. He also vowed that the fighting would stop once Israel had secured a 25-mile buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
"All we want is that our citizens in Galilee shall no longer have to suffocate in bomb shelters day and night and shall be free from the terror of sudden death by Katyushas [Soviet made rockets]," -
Originally posted by Atobe:
Against Zahal, i doubt any level minded peace-keeping force would dare stand up and separate the warring factions, especially when it involves religious fanatics.
UN Peacekeeping Force has been on duty before along the Israeli-Lebanon border, and it did not stop the [b]Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The harrassing rockets launched from southern Lebanon has always led to the insecurity of the Israelis living along the Lebanon-Israeli border. The Israeli need for a buffer zone has been ongoing as long as the conflict persist.
[/b]
For Israel crossing the border into Lebanon, that would constitute an 'act of war'. In any case, Israel lost more than they gained during their forced occupation of southern Lebanon and was eventually forced into a war of attrition, one which it could scarcely afford, prompting its withdrawal.
They are unlikely to commit troops into another worthless FIBUA exercise.
The UN peace-keeping force is limited in power and effectively useless in a conflict such as this. The show 'No Man's Land' illustrated the bureaucracy and hopelessness of integrated units, speaking a myriad of languages, practicing different doctrines and a$$-kissing comdrs who were only keen to serve their tour on some neutral territory.
Most people mock the 'effectiveness' of the Blue Berets. -
As usual, Singapore will send her medical team if needed.
-
Originally posted by LazerLordz:
Rolf! Innuendo? Bum love?
...
The tape shows [b]Bush buttering a roll while Blair stands behind him pressing his point on the Middle East. At another point in the tape, Bush jokes with Russian President
Vladimir Putin about the size of Russia and how long it will take leaders to fly home. Putin made a reply that could not be heard.
Bush, a stickler for keeping to his schedule, also thanked another leader for a gift of sweaters and said, "We have to keep this thing moving. I have to leave at 2:15."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060717/ap_on_re_eu/summit_rdp;_ylt=A9FJqaSUXrtE_9sAxxive8UF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-[/b] -
international troops did nothing for 18 years...
when syria finally left after the murder of the lebanese leader, there was a vacuum which probably scared the crap outta hezbollah..
i repeat myself, it's all political... the hezbollah knew that israel will come after them if they did something bone-headed... like this...
so in order to make the whole world "angry wtih the barbaric jews" they kidnapped 2 soldiers.. now south lebanon suffers...
throw stones at a hornets' nest, and then hide behind your daughter.. when your daughter is stung, you blame the hornets...
sadly, all the things done by hezbollah, hamas, islamic jihad... whatever... have been for propaganda and publicity... in order to sway public opinion...
while the media has quickly ate it all up and fell for their tricks...
check this out => Putting things in Perspective
on one side, you have these people with a lot of firepower and a siege mentality...
on the other, you have a bunch of asswipes who play victim and are willing to become the political pawns of delusional demogogues... -
i say, isreal should just invade and solve this problem in their own way. if the lebanese cant controll hiz, then isreal has the right to protect themselves. labanese cant blame isreal coz they choose hiz into parliament. same goes to palestinian for choose hamas. only isreal has the guts what the world are gutless to do, that is challenge the hiz. and hamas.
isreal make a mistake in pulling out from Gaza to set the pace for peace talk. and look what they get in return. i say go to war with these terrorist.