Shall we give weak states a free pass when they harbor terrorist militias?
But while Israel's actions could be defended as a deterrent against an act of aggression, they also amount to the collective punishment of the Lebanese society and government, which have little say over Hezbollah's activities.Ah, good old Salon. Maybe governments everywhere should be allowed to throw up their hands and say "we are too weak, can't you see we aren't really running the country, can't you see we are in an 'extremely tough position' politically?"
The situation puts the Lebanese government and military in an extremely tough position. The government simply cannot control Hezbollah. It cannot take it on politically because of its support among Lebanon's Shiite Muslim population, in a country where almost everyone still votes for their religion's candidate regardless of merit. Nor can the well-trained but tiny and underequipped Lebanese army take on the Shiite militia. - Salon, July 14, 2006
Seems like Lebanon is happy to hold itself out as a functioning state except when Hezbollah and the IDF have gotten down to disproving the proposition. What exactly is the Salon writer advocating here? If some drug cartel in Mexico took to lobbing Katyusha rockets into Torrey Pines and the Mexican government threw up its hands, what do you suppose the U.S. response would be? I suppose it's unclear, but I'm pretty sure that when it was over there wouldn't be any more rockets coming out of Mexico. And I'm pretty sure that if the Mexican government weren't seen as cooperating fully with our efforts, it wouldn't be given a free pass. I wonder what the Lebanese "government" is doing right now to help its neighbor root out rocket launchers and nests of cross-border kidnappers. My guess is not much.
posted at 4:20 PM
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