NewsAndAnalysis.org

UN partly to blame for peacekeepers' deaths

27 July 2006

 

Not only was the UN “peacekeeping” force unable or unwilling to keep the peace, which requires occasional action to prevent attacks, such as those by Hizballah, but also it was unwilling to prevent itself from being used as a shield for Hizballah outposts on the Lebanon-Israel border.  As the photo below illustrates, Hizballah deliberately constructed its border outposts so that they were adjacent to UN outposts.  With such close proximity permitted by the UN, an arrant strike against one of these Hizballah outposts, which are used to conduct attacks against Israel, was an inevitability.  It is likely that such a calculation was central to Hizballah's strategy.

 

Article: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield'

 

Given the UN's culpability in this predicament, Kofi Annan's eagerness to label Israel's recent bombing of a UN post as "apparently deliberate" seems either illogically conceived or born from bias.  The U.S. rejected a UN resolution condemning the attack because it included language that implied that the attack was deliberate.

 

In related news, the Canadian Prime Minister is questioning the reason for the continued presence of UN peacekeepers at these border posts, since all-out war has erupted (note: one Canadian was killed in the recent Israeli bombing of a UN post).  The PM went on to say, “We want to find out why this United Nations post was attacked and also why it remained manned during what is now, more or less, a war during obvious danger to these individuals.”  It would seem that the peacekeepers now need protection from the war they failed to prevent.

 

Photo (2005): Hizballah post beneath left yellow flag.  UN post on right.

 

 

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