Multinational Farce For Lebanon

Kevin Drum accuses Jacques Chirac of France of failing to provide sufficient troops for Lebanon, probably unaware of the forces that are already in country with UNIFIL.

Swopa thinks this was a US-Israeli-French scheme to end the fighting while forestalling any restrictions on actions.

Juan Cole thinks:

The UNSC resolution was vague because US ambassador to the UN John Bolton wanted it vague or wanted the language about disarming Hizbullah in there. The Bush administration still has not learned the rule that you can throw your weight around at the UN and can do as you please, but if the results don’t suit other countries, they take revenge on you by simply refusing to save your bacon. It happened in Iraq. Now it is being repeated in Lebanon.

The AP via CNN tells us what the French Defense Minister thinks:

France and Italy — another potential European contributor — have said the peacekeeping mandate is not explicit enough, and demanded the U.N. set clear rules of engagement for troops bolstering the force.

“You have to tell the troops why they are there. To support the Lebanese army, certainly, but to what extent? In what fields? Secondly, we also need to know what are the material and judicial means at our disposal,” said [French Defense Minister Michele] Alliot-Marie.

“You can’t send in men and tell them: ‘Look at what is going on, (but) you don’t have the right to defend yourself or to shoot’,” she said.

…

“What we must absolutely avoid is giving the image of a Western world imposing peace on the Muslim world,” she said.

I think that a lot of games were played to attempt to win in the UN what could not be won on the ground, and when the military was called in by various governments the diplomats received a dose of reality from the guys who were expected to risk their lives.

The French are already in Lebanon and they know the country and the players. The French and Italian military are not going to rubber stamp sending their troops into a situation where they are targets and nothing more. The military is looking at the casualties that the UN suffered during the recent conflict and they want the ability to defend themselves.