Text 21191, 110 rader
Skriven 2006-07-20 06:00:16 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Alan Hess
Ärende: Krauthammer on Leb.
===========================
Mr. Krauthammer is a wise man, and one who tells it like is, warts and all,
unlike most of his colleagues.  Britt Hume is the only other one I can think of
who is in the same league as Charles Krauthammer.


Alan Hess -> all wrote:
 AH> washingtonpost.com


 AH> Lebanon: The Only Exit Strategy

 AH> By Charles Krauthammer
 AH> Wednesday, July 19, 2006; A19

 AH> There is crisis and there is opportunity. Amid the general wringing of
 AH> hands over the seemingly endless and escalating Israel-Hezbollah
 AH> fighting, everyone asks: Where will it end?

 AH> The answer, blindingly clear, begins with understanding that this crisis
 AH> represents a rare, perhaps irreproducible, opportunity.

 AH> Every important party in the region and in the world, except the radical
 AH> Islamists in Tehran and their clients in Damascus, wants Hezbollah
 AH> disarmed and removed from south Lebanon so that it is no longer able to
 AH> destabilize the peace of both Lebanon and the broader Middle East.

 AH> Which parties? Start with the great powers. In September 2004 they
 AH> passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, demanding that Hezbollah
 AH> disarm and allow the Lebanese army to take back control of south Lebanon.

 AH> The resolution enjoyed the sponsorship of the United States and, yes,
 AH> France. As the former mandatory power in Lebanon, France was important
 AH> in helping the Lebanese expel Syria during last year's Cedar Revolution,
 AH> but it understands that Lebanon's independence and security are forfeit
 AH> so long as Hezbollah -- a lawless, terrorist, private militia answering
 AH> to Syria and Iran -- occupies south Lebanon as a rogue mini-state.

 AH> Then there are the Arabs, beginning with the Lebanese who want Hezbollah
 AH> out. The majority of Lebanese -- Christian, Druze, Sunni Muslim and
 AH> secular -- bitterly resent their country's being hijacked by Hezbollah
 AH> and turned into a war zone. And in the name of what Lebanese interest?
 AH> Israel evacuated every square inch of Lebanon six years ago.

 AH> The other Arabs have spoken, too. In a stunning development, the
 AH> 22-member Arab League criticized Hezbollah for provoking the current
 AH> crisis. It is unprecedented for the Arab League to criticize any Arab
 AH> party while it is actively engaged in hostilities with Israel. But the
 AH> Arab states know that Hezbollah, a Shiite militia in the service of
 AH> Persian Iran, is a threat not just to Lebanon but to them as well.
 AH> Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have openly criticized Hezbollah for
 AH> starting a war on what is essentially Iran's timetable (to distract
 AH> attention from Iran's pending referral to the Security Council for
 AH> sanctions over its nuclear program). They are far more worried about
 AH> Iran and its proxies than about Israel. They are therefore eager to see
 AH> Hezbollah disarmed and defanged.

 AH> Fine. Everyone agrees it must be done. But who to do it? No one. The
 AH> Lebanese are too weak. The Europeans don't invade anyone. After its
 AH> bitter experience of 20 years ago, the United States has a Lebanon
 AH> allergy. And Israel could not act out of the blue because it would
 AH> immediately have been branded the aggressor and forced to retreat.

 AH> Hence the golden, unprecedented opportunity. Hezbollah makes a fatal
 AH> mistake. It crosses the U.N.-delineated international frontier to attack
 AH> Israel, kill soldiers and take hostages. This aggression is so naked
 AH> that even Russia joins in the Group of Eight summit communique blaming
 AH> Hezbollah for the violence and calling for the restoration of Lebanese
 AH> sovereignty in the south.

 AH> But only one country has the capacity to do the job. That is Israel, now
 AH> recognized by the world as forced into this fight by Hezbollah's
 AH> aggression.

 AH> The road to a solution is therefore clear: Israel liberates south
 AH> Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese.

 AH> It starts by preparing the ground with air power, just as the Persian
 AH> Gulf War began with a 40-day air campaign. But if all that happens is
 AH> the air campaign, the result will be failure. Hezbollah will remain in
 AH> place, Israel will remain under the gun, Lebanon will remain divided and
 AH> unfree. And this war will start again at a time of Hezbollah and Iran's
 AH> choosing.

 AH> Just as in Kuwait in 1991, what must follow the air campaign is a land
 AH> invasion to clear the ground and expel the occupier. Israel must retake
 AH> south Lebanon and expel Hezbollah. It would then declare the obvious:
 AH> that it has no claim to Lebanese territory and is prepared to withdraw
 AH> and hand south Lebanon over to the Lebanese army (augmented perhaps by
 AH> an international force), thus finally bringing about what the world has
 AH> demanded -- implementation of Resolution 1559 and restoration of south
 AH> Lebanon to Lebanese sovereignty.

 AH> Only two questions remain: Israel's will and America's wisdom. Does
 AH> Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have the courage to do what is so obviously
 AH> necessary? And will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's upcoming peace
 AH> trip to the Middle East force a premature cease-fire that spares her the
 AH> humiliation of coming home empty-handed but prevents precisely the kind
 AH> of decisive military outcome that would secure the interests of Israel,
 AH> Lebanon, the moderate Arabs and the West?

 AH> letters@charleskrauthammer.com

 AH> + 2006 The Washington Post Company

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