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August 18, 2006
The French Surrender ... Again

After insisting on a cease-fire in Lebanon and demanding international action to separate the combatants, the French have performed one of their traditional about-faces and refused to substantially contribute to the effort. Efforts to create a strong international force to support the Lebanese Army centered on commitments by the French of up to 5,000 troops. Now the Chirac government says they could scrape up maybe 200, if they're not too busy on their August vacations:

France on Thursday rebuffed pleas by U.N. officials to make a major contribution to a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, setting back efforts to deploy an international military force to help police a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, according to U.N. and French officials.

French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France would contribute only 200 additional troops to the U.N. operation in southern Lebanon, which the Security Council wants to expand from 2,000 troops to 15,000. Chirac said that a force of about 1,700 French troops and crew members on warships off the coast would provide logistical support. ...

[T]here were no firm commitments to contribute personnel for a crucial, well-equipped spearhead force of 3,500 troops that the United Nations is trying to get into southern Lebanon within the next 10 days, according to India's U.N. ambassador, Nirupam Sen. The United Nations had hoped that the mission would be made up largely of forces from advanced military powers, including France, Italy, Spain and Turkey, whose troops and firepower could deter challenges.

It's difficult to blame the French for this. Since World War I, the French have shown a great capacity to demand action and little stomach for providing it. In this manner, they mirror almost perfectly the UN itself. After imposing a cease-fire in Lebanon -- mostly on Israel, the only sovereign nation fighting the war -- the UN casually mentioned that its commitment to provide troops would get fulfilled in a few months, and perhaps a year. When Israel and the US objected strenuously, Annan finally decided to start asking nations for immediate commitments. So far, Annan has come up empty.

If nothing else showed the uselessness of the United Nations, this latest folly should convince everyone of it. The UN fancies itself as the modern mechanism of peace. However, in its sixty years of being, the only accomplishment it has achieved has been the prolongation of every conflict it enters. The UN provides no solutions; they fix all disputes in amber and hope that the boredom kills them. That strategy has proven singularly unsuccessful, and nothing demonstrates that better than the UNIFIL force that the UN wants to bolster. Most people did not know that the UN had a peacekeeping force on the Israel-Lebanon border for almost thirty years -- and the reason why is because they have proven themselves nonentities in the effort to stop war.

At some point, the combatants in the region will have to have the war they so obviously desire, and all the UN resolutions in the world will not stop it. Until governments stop using terrorists as proxies to conduct their wars, conflict will continue, and the UN has done nothing to solve that underlying cause of the troubles in the region. The French just provide the latest and the crassest example of the joke at Turtle Bay. (via The Moderate Voice, which notes that the French have now doubled their commitment to a whopping 400 troops.)

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Posted by Ed Morrissey at August 18, 2006 6:49 AM

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» ... and it damned sure ain't over yet -- Continued from Old War Dogs
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» ... and it damned sure ain't over yet -- Continued from Old War Dogs
Continued from ... and it idamned sure/i ain't over yet -- ContinuedThe French Surrender ... Again After insisting on a cease-fire in Lebanon and demanding international action to separate the combatants, the French have performed one of their traditio... [Read More]

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» It isn't Surrender, it is local politics : France, UNIFIL, and Lebanon from Globalclashes
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» Une simple question de chiffre ou un cas de conscience? : la France, la Finul, et le Liban from Franceglobal.com
Beaucoup de journaux et de bloggers critiquent la décision française de ne pas contribuer autant d’hommes à La Finul qu’entendait l’ONU. Kevin Drum du Washington Monthly critique la France d’avoir user de toute son influence pour faire passe... [Read More]

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» It isn't Surrender, it's local politics : France, UNIFIL, and Lebanon from Globalclashes
France has declined to contribute a high number of troops to the UNIFIL, the UN force, which is going to make sure that the cease-fire holds as required by resolution 1701. The problem with the French refusal is that they [Read More]

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Tracked on August 18, 2006 11:00 PM

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