Real International Peacekeeping: Escaping the Sequel

I’m gratified to see so many come around to my recommendation at the start of the current hostilities in the Middle East for a robust international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon that actively roots out Hezbollah’s ability to wage terror war from there. (Yes, even the apologists for Hamas terrorists at Human Rights Watch have condemned Hezbollah’s terror-rockets packed with ball-bearings.)

Ed Morrissey offers a current summary of the latest about an international peacekeeper force, and his comments. It's excellent, except Morrisey errs when he says of Hezbollah, "Without guns, they are bullies and rockthrowers, and little more." Hamas and Hezbollah are more than about guns. They've provided much of the welfare services in their areas, that the PA and Beirut haven't.

The international and commentary discussions only center around the first part of what I recommended, and ignores the necessary second part, as I wrote at the start of current hostilities:

There is a way out, as outside current commentary as it may be:
· European forces – either under NATO or UN umbrella if possible, but anyway – secure the Lebanon and Gaza border areas, to neutralize and disarm terrorists and thus eliminate their threat to Israel and power over the nascent states; and
· At the same time fully engage in massive economic and infrastructure aid within Lebanon and Gaza, to replace the social role that Hamas and Hezbollah have filled and to build a more resistant civic culture, optimism and stake in peace.

Last night, with the wife and boys away, I rewatched one of my favorite flics, From Dusk Till Dawn. A quick snippet from a reviewer:

It's unpredictable and exhilarating. You have no idea where the movie will take you until it's all said and done. This is not your ordinary vampire flick, and that's what makes this movie so great. It's a breath of fresh air and so much more.

However, at the end, there’s a pan of the vast underlying vampire structure under the bar. So, sequels follow.

That’s what is wrong with expecting even a robustly armed and tasked international peacekeeper force to accomplish more than another sequel, although further in the future.

Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are so deeply entrenched partly because they have delivered to the people there what others, inside or out, haven’t: a vast network of education and social services. That’s the structure underlying their vampirish above-ground activities. Unless that breeding nest is uprooted, the area and the world will continue to suffer sequels.

I’m not recommending, indeed against, such aid being funneled through existing Palestinian Authority or Beirut-government auspices. Instead, as part of any agreement on an international peacekeeping force, it should explicitly be tasked to a new joint international body – including experienced NGO’s – that includes funding for international media to be embedded so there is constant independent reporting that doesn’t go through UN or government filters.

The funding for such a vast endeavor must come largely from the rich Arab states. They do have the most at stake.

Just as the Europeans will be confronted with the requirement to put their troops where their mouth is, so will the Arab states be confronted with putting their money where their mouth is.

Sure, anyone can point out all the problems with this recommendation. But, I’ve yet to hear anything better, but instead variations on more of the same, leading to more sequels.

IMHO, nothing will move further toward removing the European and Arab governments and people from their decades of irresponsible caterwauling in the dark of their fantasy movie theater politics, and move them into a real dawn in the Middle East.

Call me an unbridled optimist, if you will, but don’t send me or yourself back into that theater of the absurd.