Fresh Tasty Ideas

I don’t think it’s meant to be a joke:

Thirteen French tanks, the most powerful armor ever deployed by a U.N. peacekeeping force, rolled ashore Tuesday, beefing up a mission aimed at helping cement an uneasy cease-fire in Lebanon.

It gets better:

But some European officials are concerned international peacekeepers will be at best ineffective and at worst humiliated if hostilities flare between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops.

Really? Considering Israel had a tough time fighting Hezbollah, I would expect thirteen French tanks to be cutting it close. God, what a bunch of morons. France brokered this deal, and now the UN is powerless to enforce its own resolution, or to punish France for chickening out.

United Nations, France, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon

Iran is purchasing weapons systems from North Korea, then shipping them to Syria, where they can be brought across the border into southern Lebanon to rearm Hezbollah:

The ship was carrying 18 truck-mounted mobile radar systems and three command vehicles. “The radars on the 18 trucks appear to be part of an air defense system,” a police spokeswoman said. Pipes also found on board were irrigation pipes, she added.

I predicted this would happen when the UN appointed Syria to enforce the arms embargo on Hezbollah. Apparently, Koffi didn’t understand (I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, I could easily assume he wanted this to happen) that Syria has a vested interest in seeing Hezbollah succeed.

This is a classic UN bungling. Israel was forced to stop its military campaign before it could destroy Hezbollah, and now that terrorist group is rearming and preparing to fight another day, in large part due to the United Nations. Either the UN should have provided an immediate peacekeeping force of substantial proportions (France, I’m looking in your direction here) or it should not have intervened. Wittingly or unwittingly, the UN effectively acted on behalf of Hezbollah.

United Nations, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, terrorism, Israel, Annan

Don’t expect the New York Times to cover this, but it looks like Murtha may have made his infamous “in cold blood” damnation of US Marines before being briefed by the military:

I heard back from General Hagee’s office yesterday regarding my inquiry about when Gen. Hagee briefed John Murtha about Haditha. The bottom line: Gen. Hagee’s office has directly contradicted an assertion by the L.A. Times that Gen. Hagee briefed John Murtha on Haditha before Murtha accused Marines of killing civilians in cold blood. Gen. Hagee’s office confirmed to me that the General’s first briefing to Murtha took place a week after Murtha had already made his public accusations.

But don’t question Murtha’s patriotism folks; once you’ve served in the military you’re immune to criticism, right?

Haditha, Murtha, Iraq, Marines, New York Times

Here’s a good rundown of just how Israel lost the lastest conflict in Lebanon:

1. Hezbollah was still alive and kicking when the ceasefire came
2. Hezbollah successfully manipulated the media through fake pictures and fradulent death tolls. See “Green Helmet guy” for more explanation.
3. Hezbollah will win the Lebanese people’s hearts back by rebuilding Beruit and southern Lebanon (much to the chagrin of impoverished Iranians, who will be funding the renovation).

Israel is solidly to blame for item #1, they should have hit Hezbollah hard when they had the chance. Now that the UN ceasefire is in effect, Hezbollah can regroup, rearm, and talk of victory. Item #2 saddens me, because it demonstrates the complicity the American and global media had in Hezbollah’s victory. The media outlets were duped like ignorant pawns, falling all over themselves to run deliberately staged pictures. The falsification was so obvious at one point that basic Photoshop artifacts were visible in AP wire photos; only the collective screaming of the conservative blogosphere caused some retractions. But the damage had been done, Hezbollah had won the war of the media. Item #3 speaks to more international impotency. Iran and Syria fund and therefore control Hezbollah, and now those regimes will win even more hearts and minds by providing the only thing that counts for bombed-out Lebanese civilians: food, water and shelter. Looks like we’ll have a fresh new generation of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters who were galvanized for Allah in 2006, when after a Zionist blitzkrieg, Hezbollah provided for them. Just great.

And this ceasefire? It’s a joke; France will only send troops after Hezbollah disarms, which appears as likely as a diet for Michael Moore. So Hezbollah will again be allowed to go on existing thanks wholly to an unenforcable resolution dreamt up by ivory tower UN plutocrats. It’s not hard to predict that the fighting will resume maybe in a month, maybe in a year.

Ceasefires don’t create peace, wars do. After all, the Middle East has seen more ceasefires and more violence than any region over the last couple decades. And what do we have to show for it? A few of us are wise enough to realize this is just another “peace in our time” Chaimberlain-style appeasement pact which at best delays the inevitable.

Update: France is starting to show her true colors. They’re not going to send the troops they were so quick to volunteer a few weeks ago:

France is considering providing only a symbolic force for the United Nations contingent in Lebanon, and not the thousands of troops UN officials had hoped, Le Monde newspaper said on Thursday.

Pussies.

terrorism, UN, France, ceasefire, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Iran

How many times can the AP make a “mistake” in its writing before it is recognized as bias? Here’s a headline regarding the new ceasefire in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict:

Rockets hit Lebanon despite cease-fire

Hmm, who would fire rockets at Lebanon? Israel, of course! Damn Israelis, already back to terrorizing innocent Lebanese civilians, so soon after the ceasefire deal… or so you might think, if you just read the headline. But, it isn’t until you go into the article in the second paragraph that you discover:

Highlighting the fragility of the peace, Hezbollah guerrillas fired at least 10 Katyusha rockets that landed in southern Lebanon early Tuesday, the Israeli army said, adding that nobody was injured. The army said that none of the rockets, which were fired over a two-hour period, had crossed the border and so it had not responded.

Oh, so it was Hezbollah? Well how about telling us that in the headline, especially if you’re going to imply that Israeli is doing the missle launching! Here, I’ll go ahead and fix the headline:

Hezbollah’s rockets hit Lebanon despite cease-fire

That’s better. Was it so difficult? But, it was probably just another honest mistake, I’m sure…

Israel, AP, liberal bias, Hezbollah, Katyusha, terrorism

Every year in August, some dolt writes an article about how the US didn’t need to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

As the years since 1945 have slowly passed, the truth has become crystal clear. The declassification of the “Magic” documents showed that Truman did not make the decision hastily or without reservations. But, Truman knew that Japan was not prepared to surrender, and that ultimately forced him to use America’s new atomic weapon.

atomic bomb, Hiroshima, Truman, war, nuclear, Japan

Hezbollah wants peace.

Hezbollah wants war.

Lebanon, Israel, Hezbollah, terrorism

Littlegreenfootballs.com has a video shot by Reuters in which Palestinian terrorists use a UN ambulance to facilitate an attack on an Israeli Defense Force ambulance. The vehicle is used to move the terrorists around while they swarm about the IDF ambulance.

The US, UK and Canada (plus Israel) all oppose an immediate ceasefire combined with UN peacekeeping troops for numerous reasons. This is just one of those reasons: the UN positions and vehicles have been and are being used against the Israelis.

Palestine, Israel, United Nations, terrorism

UN and Hezbollah flags fly side-by-side.

Israel is taking flak for shelling a UN position. The reality is that Hezbollah fighters have been using the UN posts as cover to launch more rockets into Israel. It is well known that Hezbollah also attacks from heavily-civilian areas in order to sustain as many casualties as possible for use as propaganda.

terrorism, Hezbollah, Israel, war, UN