Also at fault: The United Nations
The Israeli-Lebanon War is a manifest failure of The United Nations. When Israel unilaterally withdrew from its self-imposed buffer zone in southern Lebanon, it was promised a secure border by The United Nations and Lebanon. As despicable as Hezbollah was in unprovokedly violating that border, what is to be said about The United Nations whose incompetence emboldened Hezbollah, who was unable to stop this incursion? What use was there for a United Nations force if it was to be unable to do anything? Why is it permitted to waste resources in such evidently futile efforts? What does this say about international agreements and pledges?
No. Along with Hezbollah, I unreservedly condemn The United Nations. I demand an investigation into its forces’ incompetance, and I demand the resignation of Kofi Annan for this unacceptable failure.
The United Nations has lost all relevance (of what little remained) in my eyes.
Tomorrow, if I remember and if I have time, I’m going to write another critique of idealism/liberalism in international relations and why realism is still relevant and true.
Muslihoon 
Icepick the Mad! said,
July 19, 2006 at 6:09 am
The last shred of respect I had for the U.N. withered and died when I was in sixth grade. The horror of the Cambodian Killing Fields finally got to me. The “strongly worded resolutions” went unheeded by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. I found myself standing beside a Cambodian refugee approximately my age, in a Thai refugee camp. I realized that he will not be able to go back to where he was born, and that some of his kin were killed. The U.N was just a paper tiger then, now it’s even worse, just a crudely drawn picture of a tiger on a scrap piece of papre, proffered by a man whose words are not worth the air he used to form them. I still see the boy in my mind’s eye when I’m about to fall asleep, certain things you don’t forget.
Icepick the Mad!
Christopher Taylor said,
July 19, 2006 at 7:17 pm
There weren’t enough underage girls to prostitute in Israel to suit the UN’s needs. And Israel refused kickback payments to Anan’s son.
Lipstick said,
July 20, 2006 at 3:21 am
It’s come to the point that the UN is more a force for bad than good.
jayne said,
July 20, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Muslihoon,
So many people on TV have been referring to this conflict as World War 3. It made me start to wonder about something that you may be able to answer. During World Wars 1 and 2, did people know that they were in a world war or was the phrase made later. For example, I have heard of older men saying they were in the “big one”, but I don’t know if they knew at the time that they were going off to fight in World War 2. I know that you are younger than I am so you have no first hand knowledge either, but you seem to know a lot.
Thanks
Christopher Taylor said,
July 20, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Nah, it’s not WW3. It’s world war 4. WW3 was the cold war. Wars aren’t like they used to be with official declarations by governments and big moving armies. It’s more subtle, easier to deny, and more about public relations and opinion.
jayne said,
July 20, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Christopher
So does that mean that no one knew at the time they were fighting that they were in World War 1 or 2? How long after a war is over before it gets a number?
Christopher Taylor said,
July 20, 2006 at 11:11 pm
The first world war was simply called the great war. It was the war to end all wars, something they thought was so ghastly and all-encompassing that it would demolish mankind’s will to do that again. A decade or so later, they were proven grossly ignorant and foolish. The second world war people started calling pretty quick when conflict engulfed Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe all at the same time.
elzbth said,
July 21, 2006 at 4:21 am
The UN supplies toothless resolutions and women, childred (and goat) abusing peace-keepers. Now we see how poorly they provide promised security. What a joke!