Russian Ceasefire Proposal

Russia now steps in with a resolution that solves nothing. But, when you're selling so many anti-tank weapons to terrorist or terrorist supporting states, I guess they don't need to really participate.

Russia circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution yesterday that calls for a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire in Lebanon, saying the crisis was reaching ``catastrophic" proportions and was too urgent to wait for passage of a separate US-French measure.

And

"This diplomatic activity is not being conducted in a quiet academic environment," said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador. "War is raging in Lebanon and the humanitarian situation is getting catastrophic."

He said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan supported the Russian proposal for a 72-hour cease-fire.

The Russian ambassador said his proposal also called for diplomats to speed up their efforts to seek a political solution.

Since Israel has already lost the PR war, they might as well play along. Though I'd put right out front one caveat. If a single rocket from Lebanon crosses into Israel, the whole thing is off. And they should ensure that it is understood that Hezbollah and Lebanon are the ones who are responsible. We know Hezbollah, for all their talk, doesn't give a damn about Israel and certainly has little concern for the citizens of Lebanon. Lebanon having a portion of its government either supporting or in Hezbollah also shows it's lack of honesty when it comes to humanitarian concerns for its own citizens.

As for France's rather weak-kneed amendements:

At a meeting of the five permanent members Wednesday evening, France presented the latest language in the draft resolution, a Security Council diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

One key amendment "calls upon the government of Lebanon, upon cessation of hostilities, to start deploying its armed forces throughout the south as the Israeli army starts withdrawing," in coordination with UN peacekeepers who are in southern Lebanon, the diplomat said.

Great, the UN will come in with the Lebanese to ensure that Hezbollah doesn't actually disarm and has sufficient time to fire more rockets into Israel while rearming. Don't forget that if a blue-helmet sees any shots in anger either they hide or run away. Pretty much the norm.

I also heard talking heads on the news channels saying Bush messed up in saying US forces wouldn't be involved. That his statement made it clear that this wasn't a serious issue, so no other major players were willing to participate. Think on this a second. If the US comes in, that will just make further complaints for the Jihadi's and it also lets the rest of the world stand around and screaming about our Imperialism. If the EU nations and Russia have any honest concerns for the Middle-East, they should step up to the plate.