I was listening to NPR this morning, and they were of course talking about the conflict (War? Is it officially a war? Does it matter?) over in Israel and Lebanon. Now, I’m a little biased, since I have cousins in Israel. But NPR explained how France, and many of the other countries who might be involved in a security force, don’t wish to go in and secure the area until there is a cease-fire and Hezbollah has been disarmed. Now, set aside the fact that it seems silly to wait to send in a peace-keeping force until after there is some amount of peace. How would you feel if you were Hezbollah? This is a group fighting for power, and now the world is going to come in and pat them on the head and tell them, “If you want to be a real political power, you’re going to have to give us your guns and play by our rules”. That’s insulting, and patronizing, and it’s the kind of attitude that makes people all over the world hate us.
I don’t know enough about the situation over there to offer a solution. But I know enough about human nature to realize that disarming Hezbollah and not Israel is going to make a lot of people really mad.