Jul
19
(2006)
With the big brouhaha about the evacuation of Canadian (and American, and British, and French, etc…) civilians from Lebanon, I think we're all kind of missing the point.
There are 50,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon right now. The Canadian government has had to rent some cruise ships to ferry them to Cyprus and/or Turkey for further evacuation by air. The process is taking longer than many would like, but our people are being transported out of the danger zone. Prime Minister Stephen Harper even used his PM Airbus (our version of Air Force One) to ferry a few Canadian civilians out (Stephen, that was a classy move. The only thing that would have topped that, since you were already in the area, would have been to clear everyone off of the plane, fill it to the gills with civilians, and wait for it to return with backup).
But, what about the Lebanese civilians? Are they officially to be left behind? If it's too dangerous for a North American or European civilian, why is it considered an acceptable risk for the 3.5 million innocent civilians that happen to live in the region?
I may be extremely naiive, but this really seems like a perfect candidate for the UN blue helmets to move in and help restore order. Likely a much better allocation of military and humanitarian resources than securing oil supplies to maintain a particular hegemony…
Comments
8 Responses to “Who’s evacuating the Lebanese civilians?”
D'Arcy,Â
I put the plight of the Lebanese civilians right up there with the plight of the Iraqi civilian, or the Sudanese civilian, or even the Israeli civilian. They are simply numbers to much of the world. Much like victims of earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. (Don't get me started on race and religion playing a role as well)Â
As for the guys in the blue helmets moving in … Hezbollah won't let the Lebanese army, the army that is officially suppose to be defending the country, move in so I can't see them tolerating the blue helmets. Â
While I'll probably be labeled a self-hating Jew for this, the level of response from Israel and the mounting casualties are only going to fuel terrorist sympathies, much as the US invasion of Iraq has done.
Heather - I agree that a real humanitarian effort is needed elsewhere as well (Sudan especially, Iraq to clean up after the liberation).
The point I was trying to make is that the Western World is able to mobilize thousands (hundreds of thousands in some cases) of troups to protect oil supplies. A fraction of that, managed by UN Peacekeepers, would be able to clean out Hezbollah in short order. But there’s no oil in Lebanon, so the civilians are left to fend for themselves.
Israel did what it felt it had to do. It might not have been the most clear-headed response, but we are lucky enough not to live within missile range of People Who Want To Hurt Usâ„¢ - Israel’s pretty much surrounded, so lives with a pretty itchy trigger finger to try to dissuade people from bothering it too much.
But, was this escalation warranted in response to the kidnapping of two combatants? Not sure. But, if they didn’t respond, Hezbollah would have been handed a free pass to keep it up. Israel is (rightly or wrongly) taking the fight to them to prevent further incidents. Unfortunately, there are over 10 million innocent civilians caught in the crossfire (10 million in Israel, 3.5 in Lebanon).
I have a subscription to BBC news hour through audible and they have been doing a reasonable job of getting the Isreali, Syrian, and Lebenese on, including the head of Hezbollah.Â
The situation defies any logic or rationale I can make out. They start talking about today and explain that is happening because of what happened yesterday, which was set up by the actions of <insert name year> over the last decade, and pretty soon you are arguing over the history of Mesipotamia.
I'm not making light of this, I just don't see how anything close to a simple answer is possible.Â
Not to make light of the cause of this latest round, but it seems to be like an earthquake… with smaller tremors rumbling for a while and this is something bigger… brought on by the capture of a soldier. A single soldier, who likely understands that it is part of the job description to potentially be captured if found in a conflict area.
Actuallly, there already are UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. And by not disbanding Hizbullah and asserting its control, Lebanon is in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559.Â
Israel is in violation of something like 24, that’s UN resolutions. Sort of late for this article.
yeah. I can’t believe they bombed a UN facility (well marked) as well as bombarding the rescue effort. I’m really hoping that was a collosal communication breakdown (akin to the US accidentally bombing Canadian troups in Afghanistan), but I can’t believe the UN didn’t slam the door after that happened. unbelievable. I’m all for protecting civilians - which is what Israel is attempting to do - but their method pretty much sucks.
Check this map out! and D’Arcy you should create a blog entry about it!