Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Tanned, Rested, and Ready to Fire

Hezbollah is all armed up and deployed in southern Lebanon, ready for another shot at Israeli civilians:

We’ve known for some time that rockets have continued to flow into Lebanon from Syria. Hezbollah may now have more than 50,000 of them, far more than it had before the 2006 war. And as Stephen Cohen notes in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription only), the Israeli military has recently revealed intelligence—detailed maps and aerial photographs—showing that these arms are now being stored in areas adjacent to Israel and supposedly being policed by the UN force.

But Brian, you may say, isn't a United Nations armed mission deployed in southern Lebanon  precisely to prevent this from happening again?

Why, yes, hypothetical questioner, the UN is in southern Lebanon precisely to do that. But if you thought the UN would prevent Hezbollah from rearming, you weren't paying attention to The Dignified Rant way back in summer 2006 when the UN force was sent.

It's funny how things organized by the sainted international community tend to work out like this.