Now Whose Response Is Disproportionate?

Small problem with the UN-sponsored buffer force in Lebanon. None of those countries who insisted on it care to step up and serve in it, as none of them cares to be in the position the world demands Israel be in at all times --namely, cheek by jowl with Hezbollah with no mandate to disarm it or bother it in any way. Funny how the same countries outraged by the U.S. "going it alone" without UN approval don't want to serve under a UN mandate even with said approval.

I know everyone will be shocked to find the French have behaved abominably. Jules Crittenden writes:

In recent weeks, France stepped forward to act as a broker of peace in Lebanon. “Act” is the key verb in that last sentence, as it now would seem that the only other verifiable part of the sentence is “in recent weeks.”

snip.

The heady moment of peace brokering having passed, uponsober reflection, the French now say they already have a general and some staff in south Lebanon ordering about UNIFIL, the U.N. monitoring entity there. That’s plenty of leadership, the French suggested: All France needs to contribute now is another 200 combat engineers.

200 engineers vs. 15,000 soldiers? I'd say that response is disproportionate. RTWT.

Ninme says the world has flunked John Kerry's "global test." Man. And they were up all night cramming.

And while I'm praising the phenomenal competence and utility of the UN, you'll want to know that British-made night-vision goggles for the UN's war on drugs just happened somehow to make it into the hands of Hezbollah. Curtsy to lgf for that one, and you should really go to his place directly, lest I be forced to reproduce all his recent posts. He's got a video preview of Abombnjihad's "response" to the West, slightly ahead of tomorrow's deadline. It includes this lovely sentiment:

If you want to have good relations with the Iranian people in the future, you should acknowledge the right and the might of the Iranian people, and you should bow and surrender to the might of the Iranian people. If you do not accept this, the Iranian people will force you to bow and surrender.

Mike Wallace assures me he means it in the nicest way.