Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Fruits of Appeasement
This is not good news: Lebanese Political Factions Reach Agreement
Our State Department, as usual, is clueless:
“The U.S.'s top diplomat for the region, David Welch, nevertheless welcomed the agreement as "a necessary and positive step" that will let the country's political process move forward, the Associated Press reported.
Hezbollah more or less got what it wanted; a significant presence in the government:
“According to the terms of the deal, Hezbollah will be given 11 seats in a 30-member cabinet -- enough to exercise an effective veto over government policies, as the group had demanded.”
Meanwhile, the government got jack:
“Significantly, the issue of Hezbollah's arsenal of weapons -- one of the most pressing matters for supporters of the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora -- was left to future negotiations.”
(Ed. Note: Washington Post writers like to use the stylistic tic of many lazy reporters and continually refer to the Lebanonese government as “U.S. backed”. No-one ever explains exactly what the level of our support entails.)
Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is smiling: for Syria and Iran, this is a “positive step” but for Israel, it no doubt means even more attention now needs to paid to southern Lebanon. Israeli PM Olmert’s failure to wage an appropriate war on Hezbollah back in 2006 has newfound significance as (and please don’t take this personally, Senator Obama) appeasement, cloaked as diplomacy, continues to demonstrate it is a failing policy.
Our State Department, as usual, is clueless:
“The U.S.'s top diplomat for the region, David Welch, nevertheless welcomed the agreement as "a necessary and positive step" that will let the country's political process move forward, the Associated Press reported.
Hezbollah more or less got what it wanted; a significant presence in the government:
“According to the terms of the deal, Hezbollah will be given 11 seats in a 30-member cabinet -- enough to exercise an effective veto over government policies, as the group had demanded.”
Meanwhile, the government got jack:
“Significantly, the issue of Hezbollah's arsenal of weapons -- one of the most pressing matters for supporters of the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora -- was left to future negotiations.”
(Ed. Note: Washington Post writers like to use the stylistic tic of many lazy reporters and continually refer to the Lebanonese government as “U.S. backed”. No-one ever explains exactly what the level of our support entails.)
Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is smiling: for Syria and Iran, this is a “positive step” but for Israel, it no doubt means even more attention now needs to paid to southern Lebanon. Israeli PM Olmert’s failure to wage an appropriate war on Hezbollah back in 2006 has newfound significance as (and please don’t take this personally, Senator Obama) appeasement, cloaked as diplomacy, continues to demonstrate it is a failing policy.
