Tony Blair and Kofi Annan made headlines this morning when they called for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to resolve the conflict between Israel, Hezbollah, and assumably Hamas. They provided no details of their proposal, but claimed that peace could not be achieved without intervention:

In the face of the escalating violence, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday called for an international stabilization force to go to the Mideast to help end the cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.

The proposed international force would be the first step in what Annan and Blair said should be a series of actions that would stop the hostilities.

"The only way we are going to get a cessation of hostilities is the deployment of an international force to stop the bombardment of Israel and get Israel to stop its attacks on Hezbollah," Blair told reporters at a news conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the end of the Group of Eight summit.

Some, like my friend Michael van der Galien, see this as a positive step towards a resolution of the conflict:

If the U.N. as a whole agrees with this, it could be a major step in solving this crises. Simply bringing a stabilization force to the Israeli - Lebanese border would not solve all the problems of course; but it's good first step. The stabilization force should have the authority and equipment, though, to use force against Hezbollah if necessary. It isn't likely that Hezbollah will voluntarily withdraw from southern Lebanon. In short; it's quite likely that Hezbollah will put up a fight.

And this is where the problem lies. UN peacekeeping forces do not fight. Historically, they run away. The worst example came in Srebrinica, where the blue helmets rounded up Bosnians for shelter, and then retreated without firing a shot when the Serbs came. Over 7,000 people civilians died in the resulting massacre. Other examples of the lack of tenacity among UN peacekeeping missions abound -- and we won't even start discussing their record on human rights, especially when it comes to young girls.

UN deployments almost without exception serve the status quo. The deployment in Kosovo shows this dynamic. Almost seven years after UN forces separated the two warring factions within Kosovo -- ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs -- the status of the territory is no closer to resolution than the day the UN marched into Kosovo. (The forces there also allowed a pogrom of Christian churches two years ago, standing idly by while the Albanians burnt down Serbian places of worship and killed 19 of them.

Daniel Freedman at It Shines For All has this to say:

The UN's peacekeeping record -- we immediately think of Rwanda and Srebrenica -- hardly inspire confidence. One million Tutsis were massacred in Rwanda and some 8,000 Muslims were massacred in Srebrenica under the U.N.'s watch. And Israel has had its own bad experience with international peacekeepers.

In 1967, when the surrounding Arab states sought to wipe out Israel, the U.N. peacekeepers on the Israel-Egypt border vacated once Egypt's General Nasser asked them to, leaving Israel exposed. In 2002, after Hezbollah kidnapped Israeli soldiers using U.N. uniforms and vehicles as disguises, the U.N., whose peacekeepers witnesses the kidnapping and did nothing to stop the kidnapping, hid their video and refused to cooperate with an Israeli inquiry.

Peacekeepers are not needed because there is no peace to keep. Israel is at war with a terrorist organization that wishes to destroy her. If Kofi Annan and other world leaders really want peace, they'll do everything in their power to help Israel crush Hezbollah and Hezbollah's supporters - Iran and Syria.

Does anyone recall our expedition to Lebanon in the early 1980s was a "peacekeeping force" intended to force Israel out of Lebanon? Does anyone recall how well that worked out? Not only did it not stop Hezbollah and its patron Syria from attacking the Israelis, we ended up with 243 dead Marines after a terrorist attack. Reagan withdrew our forces, yet another lesson for the Islamofascists that the Americans would not fight back against terrorists.

In order to really solve the problem in the Middle East, we have to either kill the terrorists and topple those states which sponsor them, or we have to disarm them and convince them to adopt politics to achieve their political goals. The latter will not happen while the Ba'athists rule Damascus and the mullahs rule Teheran. Putting an international force in the region only postpones the inevitable, and worse, it allows the terrorists to gather their weapons in the temporary calm that will follow.

On 9/11, we recognized the necessity of eliminating Islamofascist terrorist groups and their patrons. The last action we should allow is a hudna to allow the terrorists to regroup. Let's finish the job and end this war.

UPDATE: More UN fecklessness:

A senior U.N. envoy said Monday he will present Israel with "concrete ideas" to end the latest round of fighting after meeting with Lebanon's prime minister. ...

He said he will go to Israel shortly and was optimistic about his peace efforts to end the six-day-old bombardment of Lebanon by Israeli warplanes and rocket attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas on Israel.

Israel's response should be short and simple. Return the captured soldiers and disarm Hezbollah, as per the UN's own Security Council resolution. If Lebanon will not or cannot do that, then Israel must continue to do it themselves.

UPDATE: Er, Kofi, you already have a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. It's called UNIFIL. So far, they've obviously been a huge benefit to peace in the region.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference An International Force?:

» War Continues in Israel and Lebanon; Iran's Fingerprints are Everywhere from GINA COBB
Over the weekend, Hezbollah-fired rockets continued to fall on on northern Israel's major towns and cities, including Israel's third largest city, Haifa. Eight civilians were killed when Hizbollah rockets slammed into a railway workshop in Haifa. Accor... [Read More]

Tracked on July 17, 2006 10:24 AM

» More rockets on Haifa; can/will Lebanon confront Hezbollah? from Hot Air
Rambling man. ... [Read More]

Tracked on July 17, 2006 10:30 AM

» No Peacekeepers Please from It Shines For All
"British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Monday for the deployment of international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, an issue that has overshadowed the summit of world leaders," the AP reports. We cou... [Read More]

Tracked on July 17, 2006 11:03 AM

» WAR: Just Say No To "Peacekeepers" from Baseball Crank
There is talk, once again, of using international "peacekeeping" forces (including Americans, but restricted by the need to play by "international" rules of engagement) to enter southern Lebanon and get between the Israelis and Hezbollah. This is a ter... [Read More]

Tracked on July 17, 2006 11:58 AM

» The file on Nasrallah from Public Secrets: from the files of the Irishspy
The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin has a long but very interesting dossier on Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hizbullah and currently number one on Israel's to do list. The Corner at the National Review has links to various of Nasrallah's [Read More]

Tracked on July 17, 2006 1:50 PM

» WAR: Just Say No To "Peacekeepers" from Baseball Crank
There is talk, once again, of using international "peacekeeping" forces (including Americans, but restricted by the need to play by "international" rules of engagement) to enter southern Lebanon and get between the Israelis and Hezbollah. This is a ter... [Read More]

Tracked on July 17, 2006 7:38 PM

» Operation Just Rewards Approaching Halftime? from Hard Starboard
And British Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with United Earth President Kofi Annan, not to be outdone, have proposed not just an irresolute ceasefire but also [drumroll] UN peacekeepers to be deployed along the Israeli-Lebanese border! Boy, that'll ... [Read More]

Tracked on July 18, 2006 10:35 AM

» Outcome Of Kidnappers' War Still Uncertain from Occidentality
Arab bloggers are divided over Hezbollah and the Kidnappers' War. This is in fact a healthy sign. Were the Arab world to line up behind a force as martial and aggressive as Hezbollah, then we could be certain of seeing the conflagration that everybod... [Read More]

Tracked on July 19, 2006 8:49 AM

» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 26, 2006 2:28 AM

» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2006 12:42 PM

» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2006 12:47 PM

» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2006 12:50 PM