« North Korea condemns Enterprise’s port call in South | Main | If Kerry was The President... »

NATO in Lebanon?

From Reuters:

"The United States is open to a NATO-led force keeping the peace on Lebanon's southern border with Israel, although using U.S. forces has not been discussed, a senior Bush administration official said on Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said his country could accept a NATO peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon to ensure Hizbollah is removed from the border. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had earlier said calls for an international force were premature.

"It's a new idea, we'll certainly take it seriously," John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a taped interview with CNN's "Late Edition."

"We have been looking carefully at a multinational force perhaps authorized by the Security Council, but not a U.N.-helmeted force," he said.

It's not quite "Israel joins NATO..." but its getting closer.

Posted @ July 23, 2006 02:08 PM | Current Affairs

Comments

I don't think Israel touches the North Atlantic, does it? (sarcasm)

Also, I think to be fair, they would have to patrol northern Israel. However, I doubt that Israel would have any problem with that. Most likely is that it wasn't suggested now so that it can be used as a bargaining point later on...

Posted by: _Jon at July 23, 2006 05:40 PM

turkey, greece, poland, romania, hungary, latvia, estonia,lithuania, slovakia, slovenia. All NATO - All somewhere other than on the atlantic.

Two members (turkey and greece) are historical enemies, well, until they joined NATO and suddenly that fell out of fashion. My modest suggestion is that Israel and Lebanon as NATO members would change the dynamics of the whole situation.

The primary reason why a UN solution would do nothing is there are no consequences for attacking UN troops. There are big consequences for attacking NATO troops.

Posted by: Frank Martin at July 23, 2006 06:57 PM

> I don't think Israel touches the North Atlantic, does it? (sarcasm)

Does Italy or Greece? (chuckle).

Posted by: Grepa at July 23, 2006 10:57 PM

Yeah, I dunno squat about international and stuff.
I live in Detroit, MI.

I'm dang good with a computer, but I once interviewed for a job that would include a transfer to Nashville. Afterwards, I had to ask a co-worker how far Nashville was - I was curious if I could drive home after work or if it would be better to rent an apartment and just come home on weekends. I didn't realize it was 12+ hours away.

... But I'm really good with computers... :)

And yeah, the UN is a useless (and actually damaging) organization. I say damaging 'cause I think they prevent organizations that would actually doing some good from getting involved because the UN is there or in the way. Kinda like Microsoft's famous "vapor ware" announcements keep software companies from developing their own version of something.

Posted by: _Jon at July 24, 2006 08:27 PM