Thursday, July 27, 2006

The Belmont Club: A Knife-Thrower at the Carnival


The Belmont Club: A Knife-Thrower at the Carnival: "Considering the fact that UNIFIL peacekeeping mission was a dead-letter it should naturally be asked why Kofi Annan, as their ultimate commander has seen fit to keep them in a position of danger where their only chance of safety actually depends on accurate targeting by the IDF. Their positions are manifestly so close to the Hezbollah; their convoys so at risk at being confused with mobile Hezbollah forces that only by the grace of God and the accuracy of the IDF have fatalities been avoided until now. They were willing to take the risk. Annan was willing to make the hay. You be the judge of Kofi Annan's competence both in the care of his men and with respect to the accusation he has made against the IDF."


[Update&bump: The fact that Hizb'allah has been staying real close to the UNIFIL forces in general came up in the comments. Rick Ballard provided the image I've now added to show just how close Hizb'allah is to UNIFIL.]

[Further update: from Anti-Mullah: "United Nations & Hezbollah flags flying side by side at the Lebanese Observation post where four UN "observers" from Ghana were reportedly killed by someone." Emphasis is mine, and I don't know how much stock to put in it (a site named "Anti-Mullah" would seem to have a certain viewpoint from the start.) If confirmed, it would seem very informative.]

26 comments:

cf said...

Recall if you will that the UN refused the US offer to provide security for its facility in Baghdad. That facility was bombed by people the UN hired to protect it. The UN then fled the scene.

Kofi's incendiary and unlikely charge, I think , may have been to deflect from his own bad judgement. OTOH I think just as he tried to harm the ADministration before the last election, he made this charge out of pique. If the world thinks the Israelis deliberately targeted the UN peacekeepers, doesn't that add pressure on the administration to support an immediate cease fire which Hezbollah and Kofi want and we oppose?

Do I adequately convey my unmitigated contempt for this first order grifter and terrorist enabler?

Barry Dauphin said...

Not only is Kofi make this smarmy charge, but I read (can't find the link right now) that UNIFIL was repairing the roads Israel bombed. They are acting on behalf of Hizzballah. I wonder if the Hizzies pay kickbacks to UN personnel.

cf said...

I have a report that Canadian radio today carried a report from a well-respected source that a Canadian UNIFIL member emailed him guardedly indicating that Hezbollah was using them as human shields.

Of course, they would.

The question is--why were they not told to leave the area by their bosses?

Charlie Martin said...

Clarice, I generally don't like to make this kind of accusation, but I've got to wonder if Annan isn't purposefully endangering the UNIFIL in order to have a "catastrophe" to use against Israel.

Rick Ballard said...

What function does UNIFIL perform by remaining? (not that they performed any measureable function prior to July 12.) If Kofi was concerned about their safety he could have had them withdrawn - he still can. Israel would certainly give them passage to Haifa and they could catch a ship to Cyprus from there.

They would be just as effective in Cyprus as they have been in Lebanon.

Barry Dauphin said...

Knuck,

You're right of course. I was sort of playing with the word kickback because of it involving construction (like the Big Dig). But bribery with moollah, women and consciousness altering substances wouldn't surprise me.

Rick Ballard said...

StY,

This might be a useful pic for this post.

Rick Ballard said...

Peter,

That's a fair trade for not doing their jobs in the first place, isn't it? I wonder if the UNIFIL fellows might consider shooting a few Hezzie's to discourage them? If they actually have any ammo, that is.

Charlie Martin said...

Right you are, Rick. Updated.

Barry Dauphin said...

Well this headline says Hezbollah is on the run Ahmadinejad Calls for Lebanon Cease-Fire. As Lee Marvin said in The Dirty Dozen II: "It's a go. Take 'em down!"

Rick Ballard said...

Barry,

That really sounds very, very serious. It's a shame this has come up just as everyone is starting to leave for their August vacations. I'm sure the world will get right on it after Labor Day. After cleaning up all the accumulated paper work, of course.

In the meantime the Hezzies will just have to go it alone, except for their UN allies of course. I do hope Israel is reasonably careful about killing them.

In the "don't miss any" sense.

Anonymous said...

Belmont Club has some updates to his post. Love the topo maps.

Barry Dauphin said...

Rick,

Of course, one of the ironies of the situation for Hezbollah----with allies like the UN, who needs enemies!

Unknown said...

There is no reason for those people to still be there. I am glad Kofi's time will be up soon. but I doubt if the next one will be better.

cf said...

I's work round the clock for any presidential candidate who promised to pull the US out of the UN.

Rick Ballard said...

Barry,

I believe that Israel is making an error if it believes that exchanging soldiers lives for decent press is going to work out. There is no military reason to not reduce the strategically placed villages to absolute rubble prior to sending in ground forces. The citizenry has been given adequate warning and their safety is their own concern - not the Israelis. The cause of death for any non-combatant killed in southern Lebabnon from now on is stupidity.

cf said...

Easier said than done, Rick. I expect they are trying to spare civilians not only for better press, but for the sake of their own soldiers as well. It is hard to say this, but I believe they'd rather go slow and lose a few more of these beautiful young men than have returning home the sort of people who've lost respect for life.

Rick Ballard said...

Clarice,

Do you believe that the men flying the bombers which killed 200K French civilians during and after D-Day lost respect for life? The first time I had dinner in someones home in Italy I asked about a picture of a young woman which was sitting on the mantel. It was a black and white and obviously of some age. The woman was my friends mother who had been killed by Americans bombing Pisa, his wife's brother had been shot by the Germans in front of her and her parents because of he was suspected of being a partisan (he was).

War is the ugliest and dirtiest busines that men conduct and sacrificing your own men to protect not so innocent civilians just prolongs the horror. The tactic of holding civilians hostage will continue until it doesn't work because attackers come right through them.

Olmert is meeting with his cabinet right now with the intent of expanding the war. We'll see how long the Israeli government will go with the current ROE.

cf said...

I know you're right, Rick, though you must admit that dropping bombs from aircraft is a bit different than charging into a home and spraying every man woman and child in it with fire because there's a thug hiding in the closet. I know it has to be done, but I can understand that they initially hoped it was unnecessary,
OTOH if Israel had "carpet bombed" as that dope Shep Smith had claimed the other day, the area would already have been cleared.

Rick Ballard said...

Clarice,

You might have missed one sentence in my post: "There is no military reason to not reduce the strategically placed villages to absolute rubble prior to sending in ground forces." That's a reference to 2nd Fallujah tactics. The Israelis are trying out 1st Fallujah tactics at the moment - with the same success the US had. Sacrificing soldiers to protect hostages - willing or unwilling - is just bad business. It encourages hostage taking and results in higher civilian casualties than does absolute lethality from the beginning.

The war came home to me today. The name Cpl Joeseph Graves is going to show up in the casualty reports within a day or two. I first met Joe (then Joey) in the first SS class I ever taught, some 12 years ago. I've never complimented the tactics chosen by the administration to fight this war and I never will. Eventually the tactics are going to lead to slaughter on a scale unseen since WWII.

Luther said...

We should be joining hands with Israel and helping in any way we can. We could put at least two divisions, with unlimited Air Force and Navy support, at service in securing Lebanon and Syria. Then a breather, for a bit, before pushing on to Iran. This crap will last forever until we finally choose to end it. It is only the Kerry's of this country that impede resolution.

cf said...

Rick, I am sorry to hear that news.
Yes, I think this is more like Fallujah 1 than Fallujah 2. But I think Fallujah 2 is coming..it will come only after there's been a bigger mobilization.
There is some good news. Apparently Israel has broken into Hezbollah communications (before they smashed them).

Unknown said...

I am not so sure that the Israelis believe reducing those villages to rubble will help. I heard an IDF man say that they are underground. Dug in. They will have to go in and get them. Maybe that is what Hizbellah had in mind all along. Make them come in and get us.

Rick Ballard said...

"They must have something up their sleeves."

Why? They're "fighting" to have a say on the composition of the buffer force which will replace the UN. The problem is that no one wants to be the buffer. I believe that the Aussies have declared themselves unavailable, as has the US and the UK.

Why should anyone else do what the Israeli's are unwilling to do? If the battle isn't worth calling up the reserves - why should anyone be particularly interested?

Knuck,

It didn't in Fallujah 2. There is also the matter of discouraging support for Hezbollah. The locals need to look at their income statements and balance sheets and make a few calculations.

Rick Ballard said...

Knuck,

This article lays out the air assets required to reduce Fallujah. With all that gear and coordination between 15% and 20% of the buildings were demolished. Israel doesn't have that luxury but they do have UAV's and although knocking downs buildings does offer opportunity to hide behind the piles it's still difficult to hide under them.

It may be that Israel is taking a bloody nose to draw Hizbollah reserves down from the Bekaa. Their mobilization of three divisions must indicate something but I'm tired of guessing what it might be.

I'm just not going to applaud sacrificing pawns.

cf said...

I can't figure out what they're doing either. The latest report is that the next stage is going to be fought largely in the air with due warning to the residents that it's coming.